Ramen Days
by Mister Atom
Summary: As he got older, he changed. He begins to appreciate things more, accept things more calmly, his sense of patience becoming more sensible and he finds pleasure in not doing anything. Smiling is no longer a gift, luxury or a must. It's a task. (M for safety)
1. Hello Fantasy, I'm Naruto

**I'm a new author in FF and this is the first story I placed here. Just telling that to you guys.**

 **You may or may not like the way I portray some of the characters, and I'm positive that some of you will get annoyed because of that. But, I'm afraid that I'll have to proceed with how I have portrayed the characters in my mind, regardless of how inauthentic they are. So please, forgive me.**

 **However, I'm not unreasonable. If I made mistakes, please do point them out for me. Settings, names, even normal behaviors… just so that I could improve on them.**

 **I know that this type of story is already in the archive and some of you may accuse me of copying. But I'm just basing my inspiration from those stories. Who are you to correct me at where I get my inspirations from? If you don't like this story, or me in general, don't read.**

 **Phew, that was quite an opening.**

 **Now, please enjoy this short chapter.**

* * *

' _So you're ready to move out?'_

He had been asked that questions many times from the same person who resided in his mind but he could never really answer the person, simply because the person was using the wrong term. Instead of 'move out', the correct term would be 'forget'. More like 'leave behind' actually, but it meant the same thing.

Uzumaki Naruto, an immortal, deathless, whatever you want to call him, was not having a good day.

He'd just left for Tokyo, Japan and was about to rent a room in one of the finest hotel that the city could offer, but that all changed. The old but youthful looking man had changed so much compared to how he was in his younger days. Years of living will do that to somebody. His face retained its natural round and charming appearance, but there was no hiding how mature he looked. His jawline was perfect, so smooth and defined. His cheekbones were noticeable, though slightly. His whiskers were still as present as the day he was born, if not, they have become more refined. The man's hair was still as golden as ever, he kept it tame and manageable, in contrary to his long deceased father who was famous for having a mess of spiky hair. And his eyes were as blue as the sky itself, so bright but were clouded in a certain shade that no one could identify.

He ignored the voice in his head, hefting the briefcase on his shoulder. His lips curved into a frown, an obvious one.

He was supposed to be in Tokyo, but it seemed that someone or something decided to change that.

Ten minutes ago, he was in an airplane filled with passengers from the States with Tokyo being their destination. But then, everything went disoriented. A shift in time and space happened and everyone was gone, literally. Currently, he's still in the plane and with a simple act of looking out from the viewing window, he could still say that the plane was still above cloud level. He detected no human life signature from the cockpit or anywhere else in the storage cabin, everyone was not present. Whoever or whatever transported him here must have made them disappear without him knowing.

Interesting.

After the long moment of self-thinking, he finally made up his mind.

He's going to get out from this plane.

' _Are you really sure that's wise?'_

Again, he ignored the voice. He, with silence, walked over to the emergency door of the plane. Upon release, the door will open and a rubber slide would inflate to act as a safe way out from the plane in an emergency water landing situation. But since the plane was still flying, that won't happen.

With a kick, the door was flung open from its hinges and wind shifted. The man's blue eyes squinted due to the breeze hitting him, but he was not really troubled by it. Obviously, the only way off from the plane was to jump down. For normal humans, it was a downright crazy idea. But since he was anything but normal, he did it anyways.

He jumped out.

The way down, of course, was rushed. It took longer, but it was definitely rushed. He could feel the tie of his suite flailing wildly due to the fall. Despite the situation, the man was calm. It's not like falling from great heights will kill him, anyway. He shifted his body, becoming as straight as he could. This change in position increased the speed of his fall due to the less amount of resistance given by his body. Even so, there's really no telling when he'll crash down the gro-

 **BAM**

-und.

' _And you're the Second_ _ **Wise**_ _Toad Sage…'_

Again, ignored.

Regardless of the fact that he'd just landed after falling from a very great height, he could still move. In fact, he was not even hurt! The only damage done was to his suit, something that he will definitely have to fix, but nothing too important. He managed to save his personal belongings in his briefcase and he still got spare suits and many other items stored in his pocket dimension. He'll admit that he was feeling rather shaky, but nothing a good shake of head wouldn't fix.

He regained his bearings, making sure that his tie was straight and the collar of his shirt was not crooked. Once that was done, he observed his surroundings.

Trees. That was all he's seeing. To be honest, no surprise there.

He expected to be in a much more… secluded place, but this was just about right. The sun was up, and it's still the brightest time of the day. Weather's clear and the birds were singing, over all, a nice day.

Wrong.

He sensed something that he had not sensed in years. Nature. While he did sensed nature in his life, but that feeling was not as strong as the one he's feeling in this place. The feeling, the sheer presence of nature itself was almost comparable to the ones back at ; but less potent. He noticed how easy it was for him to synchronize easily with nature. Activating Sage Mode, he was already under the attention of several of the forest's docile creatures. Clearly, Sage Mode was even more effective here since he was able to sense things better than before. The stronger the presence of nature is, the more effective Sage Mode is. Oh and he really needed to meditate more often.

He raised a hand, and a small magpie flew towards him; perching itself on his finger. He eyed the bird closely, looking at it intently. Unknowingly, they were communicating. Seconds became minutes, minutes became an hour worth of time. And after that one hour, the magpie flew away with an objective. Clearly, the avian creature flew because it was given an order by the blonde man.

The man, Naruto, made a thoughtful look.

"Gensokyo… huh?"

* * *

It was a bad day for one Hakurei Reimu. No, scratch that. It was _another_ bad day for one Hakurei Reimu.

The young shrine maiden had been pondering ways on how to escape her daily dilemma of not doing anything besides the usual; sitting, drinking tea and sweeping the front yard of the shrine clear of leaves and dust. But still, nothing struck her mind. Things had been peaceful in Gensokyo for more than a year now, and that's saying something. No more pesky yokais to deal with, no troubles that needed solving and definitely no need for her to hand several trigger happy wenches their asses back to them.

It's peaceful, but boring at the same time.

Reimu wished that boredom was short lived, but the shrine maiden knew that it was far from the truth. No one visited her, aside from the occasional visits she received from a certain ordinary magician. No one visited her shrine, for some unknown reasons and most importantly, nothing happened. Not. A. Damn. Thing. Maybe she should try going out there and look for incidents, other than the usual way of waiting until something actually happens…

Nah… she's too much of a person to do that.

Her resident Oni was absent for the day. Said Oni needed to visit her fellow Oni's; something about a party, she said. It's sad that they didn't invite her but Reimu was also very glad they didn't. Perhaps the one thing that she couldn't complain was not having visited by a certain noisy paparazzi crow, god knows that she won't miss that person, ever. The Human Village was still guarded by its loyal guardian and there's no need for her to think about the Bamboo Forest of The Lost for obvious reasons. No one visited the damn place again, not even her.

But, all of this time given to her was spent wasted since she had no ways on how to kill it. She tried practicing her shooting skills, but she remembered that she was the best goddamn shooter in Gensokyo, so, sucks for that. One thing that she'll appreciate, more than free food, was people coming into her shrine bringing _monetary_ donations. Money. Dough. Paper. Cash. Yen. Dollar. Moolah. Whatever. But knowing her reputation, that's probably the most unlikely thing to happen.

 **Clank**

Was she hearing things?

 **Thunk**

Was she hearing things, again?

 **BAM**

…okay, maybe not.

Not once, twice but thrice, she heard random loud noises coming from the front of the shrine, right where the offering box was at. She could not make do with the sound alone, since it was pretty vague. The only way she could describe them was that they were similar to sound of gradually heavy objects being dropped starting from an ascending order.

"Oi! What are youuuuuu…" Reimu could not finish her questioning of the mysterious stranger, she couldn't. The normally composed shrine maiden nearly dropped her jaw when she saw said stranger dropping gold bars into her offering box. **GOLD BARS**.

"OH MY GOD STOP!"

She managed to jump and intervene before the man could pull out another gold bar and throw it into her offering box. She held the man's arm, giving him an incredulous look. "What are you doing man!?" the situation was so absurd that she couldn't ask anything else.

"Donating?"

Reimu's jaw nearly dropped. "Donating…" her voice was small. "YOU CALL THAT DONATING?!" her finger was pointed at the chunks of gold bars that were already dropped inside of the box, there were also gems and coins dropped there, but Reimu did not know this. "Are you trying to brag or something? Huh?!"

Naruto, admittedly, was having a lot of fun in this. He smirked, but managed to deliver as an uncanny one. "No, I'm not bragging. It's just that…" his blue eyes trailed over to his opened briefcase. "My bag was a little tad too heavy so I needed a place where I could drop all of those gold bars, and your box was just the perfect place."

"I – wha – why?!" At this point, her voice was louder.

"Meh."

"WHY?!"

As fun as this could get, it was starting to get a little annoying for him. "Alright, I'll admit. Maybe I was a little bored, but my bag was getting a little bit heavy, no lie there." He turned his head, looking around the shrine's complex as if he's inspecting something. "Aaand… this place looked like it could need the donation I just gave."

Despite her shock at being encountered by such a… different individual, Reimu managed to take it all in easily. This was Gensokyo after all, weird people aren't weird. She sighed loudly. "Aaah… I know that I'm bored but it's not like I'm asking for a headache either…" she moaned in mental pain.

The man raised a single eyebrow. "Bad day?"

"More like bad year…" the girl replied bitterly. She suppressed the feeling of her growing headache and chose to deal with the situation on hand. "So… those gold bars…" her eyes trailed at the normally empty and dusty offering box. "They're real right?"

"They were a kilo each, and I dropped like ten of them."

Reimu gaped.

"Maa, it's not like I'm a good person or anything." He waved his hand as if to show an uncaring nature. "I just saw what was needed to be done, and I did it."

' _That's the ideology you follow now?'_

Naruto adjusted his suit's coat, straightening them. "But maybe you could do a little something for me in exchange for those."

"What…?"

"Where am I?" he blurted out.

Reimu blinked not once, twice, but thrice. Ah, he's an outsider. A freaking outsider right at this time and season. The first thing Reimu did was to pinch the bridge of her nose real hard; as if it's her own way of suppressing the overwhelming sensation of wanting to scream out 'YUKARIIIII'. But for the man, she looked stressed. Was she on her period? If so, then he apologized.

"That useless… lazy… hag…" he heard her mutter in an ominous manner. He saw her sigh again, this time, longer. "Aaaah…" she settled down, giving him a far more relaxed expression. "So you never heard of Gensokyo?"

"Nope."

"Yokais?"

Both of the man's eyebrow were raised. "…Yes. Let's just say that I'm familiar with them." He nodded.

Reimu nodded in what seemed to be relief. "Then this will make it easier. This place is Gensokyo, basically, it's a place unaffected by the outside world, the world you lived in. This place is also home to yokais and humans, but mostly on the former. How you get here… you might ask… no, I do not know for sure." She suddenly frowned, marring her face. "But I know that it had something to do with a certain hag…"

That got the man thinking. It's been a long time ever since he heard of someone confirming the existence of yokais. He'd encountered them before, yes, but that was a long time ago. Before the unification of Japan and probably longer than that. He couldn't remember much because he spent most of his days, as an immortal, travelling the globe. He'd visited the British Empire, Kingdom of France, and wandered around Germany during the time of the Teutonic Knight's Order. That was a loooong time ago and he could only vaguely remember anything.

"Anyway, now that you're here, what are you going to do?" Reimu knew what he was going to say, because she'd dealt with several outsiders who found their way here-

"Get a job, probably."

…okay, maybe she did not expect that.

It took Reimu several seconds to register what he had just said. "A job…" she repeated the word. "Why a job?"

"Because I need one to stay here?" he tried giving her a reason.

"Ah." When he said it like that, it made sense. But at the same time, not. "Look, I was expecting you to start asking me for a way back home or anything like that here… don't kill my expectations." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry, you're not the first person I've disappointed before." When he said that, he said it in a manner that so that Reimu knew that he was being honest.

Reimu didn't know how to respond to that. "You know, for someone's new to this… you're surprisingly calm."

The blonde stretched his arms after settling his briefcase down on the gravel. "When you're as old as I am, you're not as sensitive as when you're younger. Being calm is just one of the many perks of being old."

"But you don't look old, though."

He smirked, winking. "That's exactly it. I don't _look_ old."

The red-white shrine maiden shook her head at the man's cryptic reply. She looked at the sky, shielding her eyes with her opened palm. The sun was still up high, not even evening yet. But most importantly, it's time for tea. And being a polite person she was, she invited him.

Of course, the man accepted.

* * *

"Thank you for the tea, I enjoyed it."

"Yeah, yeah."

Naruto smiled at how easy going the shrine maiden can be. He got to know Reimu a little bit from their conversation over some tea, and he's surprised. She was a shrine maiden and if that wasn't obvious enough, she was definitely wearing the red-white uniform but not in the same manner as other shrine maidens. Reimu's fashion sense aside, she was also the acting peacekeeper of Gensokyo. If there was ever a threat that could potentially harm the safety of Gensokyo's residents, she would be the first to react. But it seemed that she was not very satisfied with her job, because, well, she didn't get paid for anything. The way their conversation turned, also allowed him to learn of something even more interesting.

The duel system.

The duel system, as the name suggests, was a system set up in Gensokyo as a way to settle conflicts. Basically, people would have to duel and the victors win. As simple as that, but he got the feeling that it's actually even more complicated. But that's what Reimu told him, maybe she wasn't in the mood to explain things in detail. Anyway, the system was an effective little thing, as it does what it was supposed to do. Reimu mentioned that she'd received the help of her friends in solving these 'incidents' in the past years and that everything turned out peacefully in the end… ignoring the annoying little aftermaths that could potentially happen.

As an example, Reimu told him that after a particular incident, one dubbed as the Scarlet Mist Incident; people had trouble travelling outside of settlements due to how the incident had affected several creatures. But that was easily dealt with, easier than the incident itself. Reimu shared interesting bits to him, and telling him more about Gensokyo itself. Then, she recommended him to visit the Human Village.

"You can know more about this place's history there."

That's what she said, but he knew that she didn't like to be bothered. But he planned on going there anyway.

"Again, thanks for the tea Reimu."

The girl showed him the way out, now they're outside of the shrine's main building. The shorter girl shrugged, her detached attitude becoming more obvious. "Just make sure to get there in one piece, I don't want to solve another case of a corpse polluting the forest… then again, the animals will do the cleaning."

Even after hearing this, he smiled. "Thanks for worrying."

"I'm not."

Naruto ignored her. He hefted his briefcase back on his shoulder, adjusting his coat and tie and bowed. "I'll take my leave."

"Hm."

She saw him leave, walking down the steps, his form disappearing from her field of vision. Something was wrong… Reimu didn't know what, but something felt wrong. The way he's so calm, the way he's asking for only the things related to her and Gensokyo… it's wrong. Normal people who were transported here would start questioning her ways on how to get back, but he didn't.

Did he come here on purpose? No, he said he didn't know. Maybe he's lying?

Reimu could only wonder.

Her wondering was short lived, after remembering the gold bars that the blonde man had donated to her. An unusual smile crept itself up to her face, making form.

"Hehehe… now I'm stocked for the year, and the year after." Reimu, despite having disturbed, was very happy that day.

* * *

"Ohohoho?"

He was not expecting this, really.

When Reimu said of a Human Village, he expected for it to be a small settlement of fifty to eighty people, but he was wrong. So wrong. Gensokyo's Human Village was bigger than what he'd expect it to be, much bigger. The place was at least a quarter of Konoha, and considering that Konoha was pretty huge, this place could easily be mistaken for a small town. Now that got him wondering, why didn't they name this place the Human Town anyway? Maybe that didn't have same ring to it. Who knows?

He knew that the place was a quarter the size of Konoha due to several… methods. Yeah, _methods_. _Ways_. He was staring at the front gate at awe. Though it's not as big or iconic as Konoha's ridiculous massive gates, it's still pretty big. About four time his height, making it tall. But in terms of design, it's fairly simple. Just a very tall and sturdy lumber gate with large metal hinges, currently, it's closed and no doubt that the only way to enter was to pull the string of the bell that was fixed on the side of the gate.

The blonde eyed the bell narrowly. Was this the only way that they could open the gate? If so, why so… simple? Well, since no one was posted outside of the gates, the people who built it probably thought that this was the most effective way to deal with visitors.

No, it clearly wasn't.

But regardless, if he had to ring it to get in, he'll do it.

Naruto pulled the bell's string once, letting the bell jingle and ring. He did once and twice. That made it three times. Not long later, the ground underneath him shook and the gates moved backwards, as if they were pulled by some force. Naruto watched in amazement to see that no one pulled the gate, it had magically opened on its own. That's pretty interesting, looks like he'll be in here for a while. The first thing he saw was the front of the village and comparing it back to Konoha, it was quite close. Nothing really major was ever posted in the location near the gates back in Konoha, and it seemed that it's the same here.

It's obviously because of business reasons that they made it that way. In order to attract travelers or visitors, they placed the more interesting parts of Konoha deep inside the districts, so that visitors could actually travel and sightsee what the village had to offer.

Naruto walked into the village and once he's inside, the gates behind him closed by themselves again. He walked, beginning his sightseeing activity. His main job here was to find out more about Gensokyo itself, since Reimu did tell him that he'll able to do so here. But his secondary objectives were to sightsee and look around for anything interesting.

The blonde noticed that the more he venture deeper into the village, the more crowded it got. He slipped past the crowd of people, slithering away from the public as he chose to venture through the quieter route. The alley ways were narrow but they lacked the horrible stench that most cities in the outside world had, so that's a plus in his books. As he walked, he relaxed himself.

"Kage Bunshin."

When his clones spawned into existence, they disappeared immediately, with a task at hand. Naruto had instructed them to learn more about the village's layout, get food and find out more about the village specifically. In the meantime, he'll be walking around for a while. After a walk in the alley, he exited and entered another street. But this one was not as crowded as the previous one. He deactivated Sage Mode long before he met Reimu, but he still could feel everything clearer than ever. Just how was this possible?

Looking around him, he could not help but notice that everyone was wearing kimonos and yukatas. It reminded him of Feudal Japan, right before the time of Japan's industrial revolution, when Westernization was still not accepted by most Japanese. To be honest, it made him feel a little nostalgic. The buildings in this place were designed to look so Edo period-y, being made out of straws and wood and all. Almost no glass. But he could still see a couple buildings looking a little bit more western. He saw someone with a radio, chilling on the front of a shop. Looks like this place had technology too, interesting.

After what seemed to be thirty minutes of aimless walking, he noticed that he'd brought himself into a rather busy part of the village. But unlike the roads, this place was crowded with youths. Children from the age of six to their early teens were around, running, playing, studying under trees, reading their books under trees and doing whatever the hell it was that kids their age do. He came to a conclusion immediately; he's near a school.

"Waaai~!"

"Kyaaah~!"

Yup, school alright.

Naruto, being tall, sharply dressed and foreign looking from your typical Japanese person, easily drew attention to himself. Especially, when he's hefting that briefcase of his. Some kids were looking over to his way. The older ones were wise enough to know that he's a stranger, some of the younger ones do, but some younger ones also got curious.

"Hey mister! You're dressed weird!" one snotty nosed little boy said to him without an ounce of shame.

' _Ah, being young… can't say you missed that, right?'_

Ignored.

Naruto smiled warmly, his eyes closed. He kneed down to the little boy's level, patting his head. "If I dress weird, then you're weirder." The boy, being young and naïve, didn't get what he meant. This only amused the blonde even more. "Say, can you and your friends help me?"

"Help? Help with what, mister?"

A smile. "I need to know more about the village and Gensokyo. Do you know of a library around here? Or is there even a library in the first place?"

At the mention of 'library', the little boy and his friend's face turned sour. "Why would you want to go to a place as boring as a library, mister? You should go and play in the park, not read books!" his friends agreed with their own respective nods.

Naruto nodded too, his face expressing honest agreement. "I agree, but unfortunately kid, I need to know more about this place. So, can you tell me where the library is?"

The boy looked at his friends, and they shrugged. "Sure. You can use the school's library, everyone's allowed to use it anyway. But we don't, cuz it's boring! Right?"

"Right!"

Naruto chuckled openly at the sight. He patted the boy's head once more, pulling his briefcase. "Tell you what, since you've done me a great favor, I'll give you something in return. What do you want?"

The kids wasted no time in shouting out their innermost desire.

"Candy!"

"Money!"

"Toys!"

"Uh… better grades?"

All the other kids glared at whoever said the last one.

"I – I mean, toys!, yeah! Toys!"

Their eyes sparkled so much that Naruto could easily mistake them as stars. "Alright, alright, candies." Some were dissatisfied at not getting what they wanted, but at least they're going to get candies. Naruto opened his briefcase to show a case full of lollipops. The kids cheered, as if they'd just discovered a treasure chest. "Well, take 'em!"

And they dived, greedily taking the candies and placing them as many as they could inside their pockets. When Naruto's left with no more candies, he waved the kids goodbye and left towards the school.

The school, he assumed, was the large wooden building placed right in front of the small playground where several other kids were playing at. They didn't notice him; because they were too busy playing. After getting information, he entered the school's ground, making the library his first objective. He made his way through the school's hallway and he noticed that there were also several adults present. Perhaps they were parents of the kids who go to school here? Or maybe they're like him, here on their own accord? Either way, he didn't care.

He somehow managed to make his way to the library and thankfully, the place was near to the entrance. There were people inside, but not that much. It's not like this room could accommodate that many people in the first place, but it was still pretty darn spacious. With all the rows, shelves or books displayed, Naruto's thirst of knowledge was beginning to turn visible. Quietly, he made some clones and had the disguised as people that looked like locals. He had them read the books that were available here. Thank god that the genres here were marked, so that he could divide his clones equally.

His clones read books that were specifically written about Gensokyo. Believe it or not, such books were quite easy to find due to the fact that they were organized to be that way. He didn't need to ask the librarian, which was also a plus in his… _books_. Get it, because he's in a library? Books?

Anyway,

He'll be spending time here for at least an hour or so. With all the reading that he'll do, he will surely get to know more about the entirety of Gensokyo itself. And maybe, stumble upon something interesting.

* * *

 **Four hours later…**

"Boy that was a long read…" the man muttered tiredly. He massaged his forehead which had just been supplied knowledge from five different clones who were reading several books until finish; of course he'd need time to rest. His clones, the ones he sent out before arriving at the library, hadn't dispelled yet; maybe in a couple of minutes. He lifted himself from an armchair that was placed inside the library for readers. He planned on leaving, of course and seeing the change of color in the sky from the window, it's already evening. Time to head out.

Just as he'd exit the school's building, his clone dispelled.

"Ah. I have food now." In his storage seal, of course, since his clone obviously sealed them there before. Well, he didn't have to worry about food. Now, the one thing he'll have to worry was finding a place to sleep. Hmm…

He set out to the streets once again, determined to find an inn for a resting place. He asked around the locals, asking them if they knew a good inn or two. Surprisingly, they do. And he found one instantly.

Sakuragawa

That's the name of the inn. Sakura as in '桜' and Gawa as in '川', singularly read as Kawa instead of Gawa. A pretty simple name, yet its meaning was as beautiful as it sounds. It's not a really big building, but calling it small would be wrong too. It's a medium sized building, and it's open. He entered the inn and was greeted by a receptionist girl.

"Ah, welcome, are you here to rent a room?"

He gave the girl one of his charming smiles. "Yes."

"O – Oh… for how long?"

"Umm… until when… I do not know."

"Ah, is that so? Well, since there's no duration for your stay here, we will be charging you fifty yen each day. Is that okay with you?"

Hm, Yen? It seemed that this place was aware of outsiders like him, or maybe outsiders like him were normal? "It's fine, I'll be paying for ten days in advanced."

"Of course."

Naruto made the transaction and he was lead to his room by the receptionist girl. "This will be your room and please do enjoy your stay." She bowed and left.

Naruto eyed the room. Over all, it's comfy and traditional. He didn't mind it a little bit. Looking at the sky, it seemed that night's approaching rather fast. He loosened his tie, took it off, his coat and switched to his sleepwear which was a pair of shorts and a plain orange t-shirt. The futon was kept inside of the wardrobes with the sliding door, he took them out and spread them on the floor.

There's nothing to do, so he might as well sleep and let his mind relax.

' _Nighty night, man.'_

"Don't say that, that's disgusting."

' _Well, at least you're not ignoring me, Naruto.'_

"I'll ignore you if you keep on pestering me, Sasuke."

With that, he drifted to sleep.


	2. People to meet

" _Arthur, I will stand with you."_

A woman smiled at him, showing him the purest and most honest smile that he had ever seen on the woman's face.

" _MERLIN! WHERE'S ARTHUR?!"_

" _She… she died, Naruto… Mordred… He…"_

The same woman was nowhere to be seen, only an old man garbed in a purple robe who was looking very tired and pained.

" _Why do you reject the offer, Naruto? You would be king!"_

A younger man, hair as bright as gold, eyes as green as the grassy plains of Europe, wondered.

" _I don't deserve to be king… you are the candidate for that, Gawain."_

" _So this is it huh? Well, it was fun while it last."_

Himself… standing on the edge of a cliff, staring unto the setting sun.

" _Goodbye, Merlin. And forget about me; erase everything that proved of my existence from the round table."_

Then, he woke up.

* * *

"It's a fine morning, isn't it?"

' _You speaking to me?'_

The blonde haired man sighed, feeling himself getting irritated already. He was outside, walking the streets in the Human Village with no clear destination in mind. "Of course I am. Do I look like I'm talking to anyone else?"

' _No… I was thinking that immortality got the best of you and made you crazy and things.'_

"Ha." A tasteless laugh from the blonde, who was still keeping conversation while walking. "Very funny."

' _Funny… yes, funny. It's been a while when you've considered something to be funny. Tell me dobe, are you talking to me simply to kill time?'_

The tall blonde raised an eyebrow in broad daylight, but not stopping his walking. "Would you rather for me to ignore you?"

'… _Fair enough. It does get a little lonely here…'_

Hearing that, the blonde's eyes softened. He felt a familiar pain aching right where his heart is at.

' _Hey, it's not your fault. You've done everything you could… I'll even go as far as to call you a selfless idiot. Selfless, but an idiot nonetheless.'_

All traces of brief pain and sadness from Naruto's face disappeared, replaced with a smirk. "You know, I think I prefer it when you're still quiet and broody, teme. What got you so… expressive, anyway?"

' _I told you for the five thousand eight hundred and fifty sixth time, it's boredom, Naruto. You need someone to talk to, but since you're_ _ignoring me, I've been talking to myself.'_

He could already picture a familiar raven haired teen pouting in his head. "That's sad." Despite that, his smirk went wider. "Very sad."

' _Screw you.'_

"Ah, but you can't. Because I'm the one with the physical body here."

'… _You suck, Naruto.'_

"Not as hard as you, Sasuke."

Throughout all this time, people, parents, were eyeing the strange blond as if they were eyeing a UFO while keeping their kids away from the man at the same time. Outsiders are weird…

He walked the streets, but nothing interesting happened to him. He wanted to go out of the village, but he remembered the shrine maiden's – Reimu's – words of it being too dangerous for an outsider to walk outside of the village on their own. It's not like it was dangerous, right? He took the trip to the Human Village by himself, after all, so it couldn't be as dangerous as Reimu implied it might be, right? He appreciated Reimu for being concerned, especially when she didn't seem like the type of person to get easily concerned over something, but he knew himself. An advice laced with the threat of being lost, yokais and even death won't stop him.

That and he's stubborn as fuck.

"Ah - ! I'm sorry – I…!"

"Oh, my apologies, it's my mistake."

It seemed that the advice 'look at where you're going' was right. Through pure accident, he accidentally crashed into a walking passerby. Fortunately, he was strong enough to support the both of them from getting into real harm, or falling in this case, but unfortunately, he dropped the lady's groceries.

The blonde frowned and he began picking up the groceries she dropped. "I'm truly sorry, I was not paying attention…" he murmured silently to the woman.

At that, the woman was flushed. "I – It's my fault too." she coughed, reaffirming her voice. "Please, it's fine, I should've paid attention too."

Naruto helped her picked up her fallen groceries. Thankfully, nothing was stained by dirt. He handed the rightful property to the woman again and this time, he got to have a good look on her face. While she was not what you call stoic, the calm demeanor the lady had on her face could easily make Naruto mistook his opinion on her. Her face was pale, compared to his and her facial texture was soft as was felt from the brief skin on skin contact of his palm on her hand earlier. Her hair was another thing, but the most iconic or memorable feature about her was her attire.

It was no simple attire, in fact, one might call it complicated.

Maids were popular in the European region ever since the Victorian era and were hired as servants or housekeeping. The maid uniform the lady was wearing was your typical white and navy blue uniform, complete with the apron, white headdress, matching armlets, knee length socks, black shoes, ribbon tie and puffy short sleeves. The only differences he was seeing was the length of her skirt, as it was shorter than most maid uniforms he'd ever since during the Victorian era and the small golden chain he could see going up from her apron's pocket.

Aside from her uniform, the other unique feature about her, was her hair. It's silver. Sure, there were some silver haired people back in his younger days – Kakashi did not count because he was sure that his was grey – but none really made an impact as far as this maid does to him currently. That and the fact that she reeked of blood.

She politely received her belongings back, bowing slightly, tipping her form in a gracious manner. "Thank you and I apologize."

In return to her gesture, Naruto tapped the back of his left palm with his other hand. "No problem. I reckon that you're busy, so I should be the one to apologize for stalling you."

The polite maid bowed once more, before departing wordlessly. Then he too departed, wordlessly.

* * *

"Oh mister, you seem to have a fine collection of gems here…"

Naruto laughed, faked, flattered. "No, no. While I do believe that mine are good, I only believe so because a professional like you told me that they are." Using flattery to return another person's flattery, no wonder he got so far in life.

At the obvious flattery, the elderly man who was a lapidarist by profession, chuckled. "Oh but they are indeed fine! In fact, the might be considered priceless! I've never seen such a fine cut before, it's as if you've used a blade so sharp that it cut through the carbon molecules perfectly!"

Well… the old guy's not wrong there. Wind chakra could be used in many different ways, fortunately.

"But I must ask, if that is okay with you…" the elderly man slowly placed the gem he was examining back to Naruto's briefcase. "Just how did you come across a lot of these things? They don't just sprout out in a mine even if they're from the outside world, don't they?"

The truth is, he made them himself. Most of the gems there were diamonds found from the aftermath of a training gone wrong when was still travelling the worlds in the year 322 A.D. Elemental training could result in usually many things, but the most common ones were destruction in landscape and landscape reconstruction. He was in India during that time period and if his memory served him right, and long story short, he split a landscape so deep that it started puking out diamonds. Of course, they were still rough, so the best way to purify them was to bring them to a specialist. He learned what was needed to be done and he did the rest himself, resulting in this batch of diamond he had with him today.

"Let's just say that I was a very, very lucky man and that I won them at an auction at a very, very lucky price." Was his answer to the man's question.

"Then they must've cost a lot of fortune. These are fine gems you have with you, selling them would be a waste." The elderly man said.

"But I can't live in Gensokyo and use them for currencies every time I need to go and grab a bite, see?" Naruto pointed out. "I need currency here and the only place which deals with gems and other similar items was this so – " but before he could continue, he was interrupted.

"I'll buy it." The elderly man blurted out, as if he'd grown a second head. "I'll give you all the money I have in exchange for all of this."

Naruto may be desperate some times, but he's not dumb. Well, at least not anymore.

' _Thank god you realized that.'_

Ignored.

Nevertheless, he got what he wanted.

After exiting the pawn shop, the blonde stored the bag of coin he's carrying into his storage seal, making it look like as if he's a magician performing a sleight of hands trick. He got food, money and temporary residence. It seemed that he's going to go through the week just fine, provided if he didn't get into any trouble. And by trouble he meant encounters, encounters with dangerous people… yokai. He loosened the tie on his neck; he started to feel uncomfortable.

' _Now that I think about it… why are you wearing a suit all the damn time, anyway?'_

"It's because it's my trademark."

' _Yeah? Says the guy who used to jump around in eye blinding jumpsuits when he was a kid…'_

A snort. "This coming from a person who looked like the son of a goth priest, it's pretty damn hilarious." He walked, paying no mind to his volume or whatsoever. "The reason why I wear a suit is because of that incident in New York during the twenties, you know that I was married back then. My wife at that time, Susan, said that I looked good in a suit."

' _Hn. Still, you wearing suits for your goddamn life is one thing… just how long are you going to repeat the pattern, huh? Meet a girl, fell in love with said girl, marry said girl, have like three to five kids with her, watch as she grows old, be there on her and her kids' death bed… don't you ever get tired?'_

Despite what he's heard, he felt no stinging feeling in his chest or whatsoever. "I came to terms with that kind of repetitive routine a long time ago, Sasuke. You should know how it feels too, after all, you're stuck inside of me." he sighed. "It's a punishment for not being able to keep my words."

' _Bullshit.'_

"Hm?"

' _Bullshit. Naruto, dobe, we've been over this many times. It's not your fault. It's not only yours, so don't act like you're the goddamned messiah of their lives. Not even when you're the so called Child of Prophecy. To me, you're still that orange loving idiot who's so obsessed with ramen to the point where it'll make your everyday straight person look gay.'_

"…Just what happened to you man, you used to be quiet and chill and emo?"

' _Kaguya, Madara, Obito and_ _ **you**_ _happened.'_

The blonde actually laughed at that. "I guess." He sighed again, only less drastic this time. "I don't think I could count just how much I've been so close on losing my mind. Remember the first time we saw a plane? I was scared shitless!"

' _Heh, I would've done exactly that if I have a body.'_

"See? See?"

It's conversations like this that made him sane. Sasuke's condition… it's not something that he would like to talk about, but he promised him that he will find a solution to his current dilemma. But finding a body for Sasuke was hard. He considered on using a corpse for Sasuke's new body, but no normal human corpse could contain the incredible raw power or chakra that Sasuke possessed. Even if the bastard's inside of him, he's just chakra. Formless, invisible. And he's to blame for that. All of those mistakes… it was his fault. No amount of denial could hide that.

' _So, what are you plan on doing no? We're not going to trek all the way from here to another part of the world like we did in Rome, right?'_

"No. In fact, we might be staying here for a while. I know you know that this place is unlike any other place we've been to, Sasuke. Shambhala, Atlantis, El dorado… none of them possessed this much familiar energy." Naruto mused silently.

' _Familiar? Ah… you mean chakra?'_

"Yes, chakra, though I'm sure that it's called differently here. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't name it anything." The blonde wiped his nose with his free hand's thumb which was not carrying his briefcase. "I used Sage Mode earlier and I could do so even more effectively here instead of those places I've mentioned."

' _Hn. Could it be that this place exists outside of the realm of existence? At least, the existence we know as our world.'_

"Then you could have just said that this place existed outside of our world, no need to make it so complicated." The blond paused, before resuming. "No… from what Reimu told me, this place exists within our world. I don't get how someone… or something managed to make such a complicated theory of having another world co-existing within our world, unless if they're very experienced in intra-dimensional laws, theories and other necessary knowledge involving time-space manipulation."

' _Hn? But I thought you're the only one in the world who knew about it?'_

Naruto shook his head. "I'm not the first one. Where do you think I learn about space-time manipulation? All those scrolls, books, archives I've read about space-time manipulation came from people who've touched the topic way before we were born. To be honest Sasuke, I'm not surprised if there's a being older than us living in the world that we know today."

' _Our world, or this world, dobe?'_

At that, Naruto's lips thinned out. "…That's something I would like to know myself. Do you remember _that_ incident?"

' _Which one?'_

"Oh come on, I can't believe you forgo-"

' _Oh, OH. It's that one huh?'_

Naruto chuckled uneasily. "Yeah, _that_ one. Not really something that you want to remember, right?"

' _Tch, as if I would want someone reminding me of the time when we have to face off against a pantheon of cosmic Gods!'_

"It was me who faced off against a pantheon of cosmic Gods, you're there only in spirit." Then he was silent. "But I appreciate your efforts on helping though, even if Kirin wasn't exactly useful…"

' _No duh, we were in space when that bastard Cthulhu decided to show its horrendous, hideous and ungodly form.'_

"Don't forget Nyarlathotep, Sasuke, don't forget about her." The blonde said in an almost scolding manner.

' _Guh… I'm still confused why you even refer to that monstrosity as 'her'.'_

Naruto snickered to himself, finding amusement.

'But back to topic dobe, screw you for getting our conversation off track. Just how long will it be like this?'

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, as if his body had just went rigid on its own. He relaxed his body, it took him less than a millisecond to do that. Slowly, he raised his head so that he could see the blue morning sky above him, the white patches of clouds reminding him of cotton candies. He smiled and then resumed to walk again.

"For as long as I could, Sasuke."

* * *

"Yo Reimuuuu I'm here!"

"No one invited you here."

"Now, now don't be such a – whoa! What's with all this gold laying around your shrine, girl?!"

Kirisame Marisa never knew that the day where she'll see a rich Reimu came true. That and she lost a bet with a certain Oni. If someone were to translate Marisa's speech from the statement above, she would be referring to the number of gold bars Reimu have scattered all over her shrine's interior.

The Hakurei Shrine Maiden looked smug for a moment. "I finally got someone to donate."

"Whoa! For reals?" the girl with the pointy witch hat exclaimed. "Who's the nice guy? I bet he's new here, huh?"

This was Kirisame Marisa. She's Reimu's best friend, much to the shrine maiden's denial, and partner in solving incidents. She had a habit of introducing herself as an Ordinary Magician, explaining why she was dressed as one, to be more specifically, a witch. Her attire itself seemed ordinary, but it was the accessories that she had all over it. The white blouse she had on her, was covered by a black buttoned vest. Her skirt, which was also black to match her vest, was draped by a white lap apron with pouches stitched into them; possibly for convenient storage. Her hair was blonde, a way of contrasting her between the shrine maiden, tied into a single side braid on her left side. Her eyes were blue, light blue and were sparkling just like they used too. And her pointy witch's hat was at its place.

The shrine maiden raised her eyebrows. "How did you know that he wasn't from here?"

"Cuz if it's someone from here, they wouldn't donate a single cent! Much less this much gold!" Marisa laughed out as she witnessed Reimu's confused expression transforming into that of an irritated one.

"Damn you." But Marisa's joke didn't irritate Reimu as much as it usually does, maybe it's because she got all this gold to spent? "Anyway, something tells me that you're about to mug the poor bloke for whatever possession he has with him." at that, Marisa scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile plastered on her face. "Let me tell you, don't do it."

Marisa's expression fell, upon noticing that Reimu was dead serious. "Why, ze?"

Reimu sighed, before fixing a look on her magician friend that simply said 'are you kidding me'. "Aside from the fact that I feel sorry for the poor man if he has to deal with your kleptomania issues, he simply won't let you or he won't even give you a chance. Now don't ask me why, I just get the feeling that if you try anything to him, it's you who'll be blast to the sky instead of him."

Marisa was silent for exactly five seconds, and then she laughed.

Reimu gained a tick mark for that. She huffed. "Fine, see if I care."

"Hahahaha! Oh that's rich! Someone, an outsider, who could best me in a fight with or without danmaku? Reimu, you're just worried about him cuz he gave you all of that gold!" at that, Reimu's irritation increased. "Lookie here friend, I promise that I won't make a trouble for you, but I won't promise of not meeting this guy at the same time either. So, tell me what he looked like."

Reimu was hesitant, but she knew that if she didn't gave the answer to Marisa, she'll bug the hell out of her till evening. "Sorry Naruto, but it seems that I have no other choice." She has. A lot, in fact. She just didn't bother. "He's blonde, tall, blue eyes, wears a suit, carries a briefcase and he's your type of guy."

At that last point, Marisa beamed with a huge smile on her face. "Whoa whoa!? He's my type of guy?! Seriously?!" Then her face turned into a confused one. "Wait a minute, how do you _know_ what my type of guy is?"

"He's mature, possibly older than he looks. That's your type of guy alright, and I don't need Rinnosuke to confirm that for me." things were changed. It's Reimu's turn to tease Marisa with a sly smirk.

The witch, obviously knowing what Reimu meant, got a little red on the face. "S – Shut up!" she then huffed. "Anyway, I'll be looking for this guy." She jumped outside of the shrine and on to her flying room. "Wish me luck, ze!"

With that, she took to the skies, leaving Reimu alone in her shrine with her gold bars.

Reimu shrugged. Good news is, she's alone with her money. Bad news is, Marisa's out there causing trouble. "Oh well, it's fine as long as the blonde guy doesn't mind."

* * *

In the middle of his walk in the forest, Uzumaki Naruto shivered.

 _'What's up?'_

"Nothing. I felt a disturbance somewhere…"

 _'Disturbance?'_

Naruto looked around his surroundings, keeping wary of what might come. "That kind of feeling that struck your back before something bad happens to you."

 _'Ah, I see. Tough luck for you.'_

"Jerk." He uttered under his breath.

He left the Human Village, thinking that a little exploration won't hurt. He'd left the Human Village ten minutes ago, but he's already lost. He blamed himself for that, his sense of direction was always bad. He remembered during his youth where he and his teammates, Sasuke included, must act as supervisors to academy students and lead them through a forest. Konohamaru won't stop complaining, thankfully, the kid grew up to be like his uncle.

Again, he's wandering around with no real objective in mind. He didn't even know what other places are there in Gensokyo for him to visit, so he'll just let his feet take him and let the wind guide his path.

 _'Hey, do you feel that?'_

Naruto opened one eye while keeping the other one closed. "Yes I do."

 _'You're going to do something about it?'_

Naruto shrugged his shoulders in a carefree manner. "What we're feeling is probably that sensation I felt earlier. Regardless of what I do now, I will eventually have to face it."

 _'Alright, cool. Oh and feel free to use my jutsus, I'll be taking a nap.'_

"Thanks."

He was still walking despite the topic of conversation. But even as he walked, he could feel the surge of energy coming straight at him from the skies. He raised his briefcase slightly above its usual position and when he felt the sensation near him, he jumped.

 **CRASSSH**

The sound of dirt being picked up from the ground filled the area, followed by the soft sound of his shoes landing back on the ground. Naruto eyed the destruction in front of him with amusement. It seemed that someone got the perfect idea of charging at him at a speed of Mach 2… how… dumb. Plain dumb. Whatever crashed into him surely had the intention of targeting him, because if this all was just an accident, said thing would've rerouted its flight route somewhere else.

"Ow ow ow ow…! That hurts, ze…!"

Naruto tilted his head to the side slightly. "A girl…?" he mouthed silently as the smoke and dust that surrounded the crash site slowly dissipated, showing him who the culprit was.

The first thing that reached his mind when he saw the scene was, of course, the person herself. She's dressed in a witch's clothing, that much he knew, and was wearing a black pointy hat to further prove the earlier claim. Was that a broom near her? Don't tell him that she rode that and was able to bring it to a speed as fast as Mach 2… the miraculous thing was that the girl was safe, only slight bruising on her arms and forehead. Her broom was intact too, good for her.

"Oooh… I should've planned this shit better." Yeah, she definitely should have did. It was then when she noticed the other blonde's eyes staring at her. "You!" oh, she's pointing her finger at him now. "Give me, Kirisame Marisa, everything you have."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…No." he said flatly.

The witch nearly fell from his anticlimactic reply. "Don't matter… I'll just have to take it all from your unconscious body!" she pulled out an octagonal box made from wood with a familiar eight trigrams printed on a circle on the front.

The male blonde remained still, with his tilted head unmoving. "What are you going to use that for?"

Marisa grinned. "This, **Love Sign: Master Spark!** "

' _DUCK!'_

"Hpmh…!" Naruto was taken by surprise, he was not expecting this. A beam of multi-colored light blinded his vision, it was aiming for him and he did not have time to dodge it.

Marisa watched as the suit wearing man took a Master Spark straight on. She grinned. She didn't put that much energy in that one, so he shouldn't die, but she did make the explosion look big; just for the hell of it. Marisa was confident that she got the fella, the only way for him to be able to survive a Master Spark, regardless if it's weak, is for him to evade the strike immediately or creating a barrier. Marisa watched as the aftermath of her Master Spark cleared away and was stunned.

"He's… he's gone?"

Then it clicked into her. She moved -

But she was not quick enough.

He hit her. Right on the gut with a fist that sent her flying a few meters away into the tree lines. Naruto was standing, his hand in a ninety degree angle from punching Marisa. His eyes were covered by the shadows of the trees, and he stood not breathing at all. But then, he realized what he'd done.

"Ah, I punched her."

' _Idiot dobe… just check on her, even if she did just attempted to blow your heads off with a giant rainbow laser of doom.'_

Naruto retracted his hand, actually relieved that he didn't fully outstretch his hand when he instinctively punched the witch. "Right, better check on the girl." He abandoned the main road for the game tracks, entering the tree lines to search for the witch he'd punched earlier. He found her, out cold, stuck to a tree about five meters from where they had their 'fight'. He whistled. Upon getting her, she must've crashed and went through several other trees like this one. Damn, he did hit her hard.

Approaching her unconscious form, he then crouched to her level. "Oiii… you awake?" he knew that she's unconscious, but making sure won't hurt. He picked up a nearby stick and proceeded to poke her forehead with it. "Oi, witch brat, you dead?" he can still detect her heartbeat, but it won't hurt to make sure. Left with no answer, he sighed.

"Looks like I'll have to carry her." Where exactly… he got an idea…

* * *

"Yo Reimu, I'm here."

"Déjà vu…" The shrine maiden muttered, pausing on her sweeping. Looking at the man who had announced his arrival on her shrine, her eyes wandered over to the 'luggage' he's carrying. "Well, I warned her." She said uncaringly, resuming sweeping the courtyard.

Naruto didn't particularly reply to her comment over the fact that he might be carrying someone that Reimu knew. Seeing that the front veranda was empty, he laid the unconscious witch over there. "Do you mind if I put her here?"

"Yeah, no biggie."

' _Wow, you're going along well with her.'_

"You do know that this is how you act when we're younger, right?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Naruto waved a dismissing hand at Reimu. "Nothing, just talking to myself."

At that, the shrine maiden briefly raised one of her eyebrows, before settling to normal again. "Meh, you outsiders are always so weird." She swept the ground some more, before eventually stopping and leaning her broom on one of the shrine's pillar. "So, what happened to her." She asked with crossed arms, tilting her head at the unconscious witch's direction.

"She zoomed straight at me with a flying broom. But that's not all, she fired a big friggin rainbow laser of doom right at my face…" he said this with a little bit of irritation in his voice. "Good thing I was fast…"

If Reimu was impressed, she didn't show it. "Eeeh? You dodged master spark? You're pretty agile, then."

"So what that girl used, the big friggin rainbow laser of doom, was one of the attacks that you people use in your duels?" Naruto inquired.

Reimu nodded. "Yup, that's Marisa's signature move. Master Spark. Actually… it wasn't originally her signature move, it belonged to someone else. She stole it. Along with several other junks she's been keeping in her junkyard of a house."

"So she wasn't actually kidding about robbing me off my clothes, huh?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"No."

"Good thing I stopped her then." Naruto concluded, rubbing a speck of dust that gathered on his shoulder.

"By the way…" Reimu started, questioningly. "What did you do to her, anyway?"

Naruto raised both eye brows. "Hm?" his eyes settled for the sleeping Marisa. "Ah, her, I punched her a little too hard."

"How hard, exactly?" Reimu asked.

"She went through a tree and the tree behind that tree and the tree behind that tree which was behind that tree and the tree behind the tree which was behind that tree which was behind that tree and a the tree behind the tree which was behind that tree which was behind that tree which was behind that tree which was behind that tree and –"

"Okay, okay… I get it." Reimu managed to stop the blonde man from stretching things out from long to longer. She gave the whiskered blonde a small glare. "Anyway, you wanna stay for a while? I'll brew some tea for us."

Naruto shrugged, before smiling gratefully. "I appreciate that.

They entered the shrine.

"So should we just leave her out here?"

"Meh, don't worry about her. She'll wake up eventually."

"Alright…"


	3. MORE people to meet

**To address a question from one of my readers, I will have to say some things at the start of this chapter. Note that you readers may ask the questions mentioned below, so I'm writing them here to address them before you have the trouble of asking.**

 **Number one: Pairings. Ah, the dreaded topic of all. Who will I pair with Naruto? Will this story even have a pairing in the first place? To answer that question in order… I do not know and yes. I do not know who I will pair Naruto with and yes, this story will eventually have a pairing. But for right now, it's too early to decide so I'll just keep rolling with what I have in mind. But in the future, I might or might not ask you guys for a pairing, so please, be aware of that. Why? Because there's too many females in Gensokyo and choosing one is nearly impossible. So, I'll decide it by random. Lottery. On my own. Sigh… loneliness.**

 **Number two: Power level. Hey Vegeta, what does the scouter says about his power level? IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAA – okay I'll stop right there. Now, see here, the thing is, I don't even know how strong Naruto is. In the original story by Kishimoto, he's strong and Kishimoto's done a 'great' job of covering all aspects of becoming strong for Naruto. He's strong in physical performances, he's super-fast, he's capable of using a plethora of different versions of rasengan, he's one with the Kyuubi and he can create shit through the power given by the Rikudo Sennin. But in this story, he doesn't have the Kyuubi. So, if he's already strong in the manga/anime, then I can assure you that he'll be even stronger here, in my story, with an additional ninety percent of badassery.**

 **Number three: Sasuke. Yeah, I can say this: the bastard needed punishment for what he did in canon, so, by not giving him a body and a comical attitude's my way of punishing him in this fic. But of course, that's not the real reason as to why I put Sasuke in the state he's in. There's more to it, so continue to read.**

 **I guess that's all that I needed to say, so, let's continue with the story.**

* * *

" _No... not yet, I won't be strong like this… again!"_

A woman with braided hair which seemed to be made out from golden silk, panted raggedly. She clutched the sword on her hand, refusing to give.

" _We've pushed the English back, Naruto, we can do this!"_

The same woman roared in delight as she basked underneath the glow of victory.

" _Burn her!"_

" _Heretic!"_

" _She deserves this!"_

Again, the same golden haired woman. This time, she was chained and bound to a stake, unmoving, not resisting. She did nothing as they light the hay beneath her with fire.

* * *

"…ey. Hey! Naruto, you listening to me?"

With that, he's snapped back into reality.

He blinked. "Hm? Sorry, I was dozing off for a while there." He apologized, looking really apologetic.

Reimu, before sipping her tea, shook her head. She sipped her tea, taking small, constant sips. "It's fine, but I don't like being ignored." She set her mug down, coughing. "Ahem, so, how's the Human Village? Found anything interesting?"

The blonde whiskered man nodded. "Got a place to stay, so that's good." He said in a carefree manner. "I also have cash now, so I won't have to worry about dropping more gold bars in your box."

"Aww… that's sad, for me at least." the shrine maiden fake whined. "That's all?"

"Yup and I have to say, this place's origins is pretty interesting." Naruto commented in an almost complimentary manner. "I hit the books and they mentioned several things that interest me. Gensokyo is actually a part of the outside world, or my world, not another different dimension."

"Yup, that's as true as ever." Reimu confirmed subtly from her seat.

"Another one is the population. From what I've read, despite the yokais being larger in terms of population, they've established a very good relation with the humans. Of course, this does not apply to all yokai who roams Gensokyo as we speak."

"Umu." Reimu nodded.

"And finally, Gensokyo is surrounded by the Great Hakurei Barrier." Upon mentioning this, he intentionally let awe escape his voice. "Can you tell me a little bit about that, miss Hakurei?"

Reimu avoided his glance, simply because she didn't feel like looking at him. The shrine maiden stretched her arms a little bit, before moving to her legs and neck. "Yeah, I figured you'll touch this topic." She said. "The Great Hakurei Barrier is, as the name says, a barrier. It's what separates Gensokyo from the outside world and this shrine is the only way, both in and out of here." Reimu then gave Naruto a knowing look. "Your case was not unique, but it is rare. Normally, people who are spirited away here, will either end up outside of the shrine instead of the forest. But that's talking about physical spirited away."

"To be physically spirited away into Gensokyo is something rare, because usually, the most common form of spirited away is the temporary one. Only a person's consciousness will be spirited away into Gensokyo, not their body. After some time, the conscious returns to the body and the person will take the experience of coming here as something similar to a dream or hallucination. I don't normally deal with those kinds of people, because even if they are here, I have no way of telling where their consciousness is. It's not like I can see consciousness." She explained thoroughly. "But to those who made it here in the flesh… we usually give them two choices. One, they could stay here in the human village or two, I'll return them to wherever they came from."

"As simple as that?" Naruto inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"As simple as that." Reimu confirmed with a small and quick nod.

Naruto sat on his place, becoming silent. What Reimu told him confirmed his suspicion… there's an invisible barrier above this shrine, so no wonder this shrine rarely got visitors, it's placed on the edge of Gensokyo. But considering the distance between this place and the Human Village, people could actually visit. He didn't know why they don't, though.

"But Reimu… how come you didn't ask me whether I wanted to leave or not?"

At that, Reimu merely gave him a single eye. "Do you _want_ to leave?"

Naruto blinked. "No… not anymore." He then smiled. "This place, Gensokyo, is far too interesting to leave behind."

His claim did not surprise Reimu one bit. "Hm. But there's one thing that you'll need to know. The barrier's main function is to keep the outside world from affecting Gensokyo, but there's also another function for it and that's to –"

"- keep the yokais inside of Gensokyo from escaping and causing terror in the world outside… am I right?" he flashed her a cheeky grin, one that befit him.

Reimu was wide eyed for a moment, before allowing an impressed smile to form on her face. "True." Her face then fell again, returning to its usual detached expression. "But you know how things usually go… somehow, some of them managed to get outside of the barrier without me knowing. And I don't know how they do it."

At hearing the shrine maiden's dilemma, all Naruto could do was shrug. "Sorry to hear that…" he proceeds to give his warm mug of tea his attention. "I'm surprised you're sticking with this job until now, you've been doing this for years, no?"

Reimu noted the deeper meaning behind his question. "It's not like I could quit even if I want to. I'm the Hakurei Shrine maiden. Like the previous ones before me, it's my job to be in charge of peacekeeping in Gensokyo. It's not something that I can easily escape from, no matter how boring the job is."

"Ah, bound by duty." Naruto commented, sipping his tea slowly. "People who're in that kind of situation tend to complain much, kind of like what you're doing."

"Well, you can't blame people like us." Reimu retorted blandly before she too sipped her tea. Glancing at the male blonde, she gave him a questioning look. "What's your story, then? Are you another typical come-here-to-look-for-power-or-wealth type of outsider?"

Opening a single eye, the blue eyed blonde didn't give Reimu an answer directly. "You do realize that you're speaking to a guy who gave you ten gold bars and at the very least half a kilo worth of gems, right?"

"Ah, now that you mentioned it…" Reimu did a double take. "So, anyway, back to you."

The blonde chose this moment to switch to an even more comfortable sitting position, with one of his legs bent allowing him to perch his chin and support his head. "I'm a traveler by nature; I've been to all sorts of place. I was actually supposed to go to Japan for travelling reasons, but before that I was living in a country called America, the land of freedom." He said with a joking tone. "I was an author, my income comes from the books I wrote."

"Oh, what kind of books you write?" Reimu asked, curious since this was not a topic she would usually touch when talking with a person.

Instead of an immediate answer from the blonde man, she got him staring at her. This made her confused but after a while, she saw him nod. "I guess you're old enough." To her further confusion, the blonde started to reach for his ever so present briefcase. She observed silently as she watched the man open his personal storage, retrieving something. That something turned out to be a very distinct and professional hard covered orange book. She got even more confused when Naruto handed said book to her. "Here."

Reimu eyed the book as if it's something that came from space. "What's this?"

"My book, the one I wrote. It's an autographed one, so consider yourself lucky." Despite what he's saying, he's pretty uncaring about it. It's not like this was his first time giving someone an exclusive autographed book. "Don't read it now and read it only when you're alone." unless if you wanted to be mistaken as a pervert… was what he added mentally.

Accepting the book didn't mean that the confusion was gone entirely. She can only look at the man with a curved expression. "Thanks… I guess?"

"You're most welcome."

After giving her the book, Naruto resumed his story. "Being an author is boring, but the money was good. Really good." At this Reimu snort while keeping the book for later examination. "But as with every other successful authors out there, I'm easily bored." Here, he sighed openly, as if intentionally letting Reimu know of his dilemma. "So, I planned a trip for Japan and the rest is as you've heard from me the other day."

"Pretty interesting." Mostly because she didn't really have the time to chat to previous outsiders who made their way here the way she did with Naruto. "But can't say I really envy you outsiders. I've seen the outside world, at least a glimpse of it when the barrier was malfunctioning." Unknowingly for Reimu, a small glint appeared in Naruto's eyes. "Sure, you fellas may have access to weird outsider exclusive technology and you don't have to worry about pesky yokais robbing your life stock from you. But to not be able to see what you have never seen at all, that's a shame. Unlike me, I've seen pretty everything. Gods, demons, vampires and annoying little ice fairies who won't shut up unless if you hand her tiny little butt to her."

Naruto allowed himself to laugh at Reimu's humor. "I'm sure I know what you mean." The way he said this was almost in a faraway like manner, as if he was being drifted away by imagination. "But I'm not a normal person, even by an 'outsider's' standards. I'm aware that the superstitious exist, and can't say I'm fond of being surrounded by them either."

This time, Reimu's glance was obvious. "Then why are you here?"

"That's the question. Why am I here? Was it because of interest? Curiosity? Thirst for knowledge?" he started to list the possible questions that might be running around in Reimu's head. "Believe it or not, none of those were correct. Well, except for the first one. I'm interested in Gensokyo, but not as the same reason as most people who came from the outside world has. It's more…" he gave himself time to think. "Personal. Yes, personal."

"In what sense?"

"In a sense that it made me remember my earlier days, even though I'm not that fond of reminiscing about the past. My past, especially." He felt something inside stir, and it's probably not his formless friend's conscious. "I've seen things in life that made me rip out the word 'superstitious' from my dictionary book. Because when we use the word superstitious, we are implying that we do not believe in a particular being's existence. I'm not going to pick examples, but I'm sure you know what I meant."

As she listened in, Reimu could tell how awfully relaxed he was in opening all of this up to her. Sure, she could take this in a psychological way and say that she's listening to the ramblings of a stranded outsider, but it didn't help when said outsider didn't want to leave. Reimu could just as easily open up a portal and let the man leave, never returning again and return to his daily life. But as someone who could relate at not being able to do anything, made her pause her attempts.

"I'm an old man… contrary to my looks. And being old has made me tired, even of life itself. There's really a time when I wish that I'd just never wake up again, but I know I can't."

Here, Reimu didn't know why, but her voice came out. "Why?"

Hearing her, he directed his focus into her. Paying attention to Reimu. He noticed that even the shrine maiden herself was surprised at the question she'd just asked. Regardless, he still answered.

"Because… I can't die just yet. Not until I've found something worth doing in life."

It came to Reimu's mind that his answer could probably mean more literally, instead of figuratively.

* * *

"Ah, it seems that sleeping beauty's awake." Naruto mentioned with eyes closed just as he was about to reach for his tea. "How are you, Marisa-kun?"

The other blonde, the witch, flinched. She was sure that she was hidden behind the sliding doors this whole time, how could he notice her? She wasn't even moving, much less making a noise. Timidly and slowly, the hat wearing girl walked inside the shrine with careful steps and flushed face, probably due to being caught eavesdropping on a conversation. She took several steps before reaching an empty spot next to Reimu, who acknowledged her presence by pulling out another mug as well as pouring tea into it. Now seated down, Marisa still didn't have the courage to look at the blonde man's direction, much less his eyes. She was literally sitting with a person she tried to mug the hell out of earlier today.

"Told you so."

"S – Shut up…"

Naruto chuckled, watching the two friends exchange words. He took a split second to glance at the sky outside. It was still early, so there's no reason to go out just yet. He returned to his tea and saw no point in exchanging words and it seemed that this sentiment was shared by Reimu too. Really, the only one who was uncomfortable at how quiet the atmosphere is was probably Marisa. It's obvious at how uncomfortable looking her expressions were. Her eyes continuously flickering between the man and her friend, figuring that either both of them would break the ice any time soon.

But, it seemed that that was not happening any time soon.

The blonde haired witch sighed mentally; whether it's suspicious mushrooms or awkward atmosphere, both could easily kill her the same way. She's sitting here, awkwardly, between her unsociable shrine maiden friend and a complete stranger who she had tried to mugged earlier, her broom's not here, she hadn't visited Alice yet and her –

Wait.

Her broom's not here?

Whatever quiet atmosphere the room had going on, was ruined by Marisa who jumped on her two feet, looking as panicked as an owner who has misplaced her cat. "MY BROOM!" She shouted. "MY BROOM!" Again.

Seeing this, Reimu gave her irritably loud friend a glare. "Sit down will you? You're ruining my tea with your irritating voice."

"My broom's not here!" Marisa shouted, her arms in the air.

"Yeah, yeah and so is your mom. Now shut up and sit down, it's getting cramped."

Meanwhile, the only man in the room had just finished his tea. Noticing that the shrine maiden was beginning to get annoyed at her friend's antics, he decided to speak. "It's kind of my fault there."

Marisa's head turned so fast it's a surprise that it didn't break. "What did you do?!" the girl half shouted half demanded. "That broom was one of its kind, there's none other like it!"

Naruto did not bat an eyelash, much less felt sorry for the witch. "Oh yeah, it looked pretty normal to me." he said. "I'm sure that you'll find another one like it." Instantly, he ended up with a panicked witch inches away from his face.

"What did you do to it?! Tell me! Did it broke? Huh?!"

Naruto blinked. Never mind the invasion of personal space, he's more interested in why she's freaking out over the loss of her broom. He's aware that the broom was probably the only tool that allowed her to fly and she couldn't fly without it. But wasn't she a magician? She's supposed to have another way besides the broom, right?

"Tell me already!"

After hearing that, something tells him she didn't.

Naruto sighed. He shoved the witch's face away from his with his palm, looking a little but annoyed himself. "I didn't break it, so don't get your panties in a bunch. Besides, even if it did break, it's your fault, miss I-fly-straight-to-a-random-stranger-without-even-minding-my-own-safety." Hearing that, Marisa blushed. When he said it like that, it sounded like her mistake.

"Don't make that face… it's your fault in the first place. You should be thanking me to even bother taking you here." The male blonde said, using his pinky to pick his ears for dust. "Children these days…"

"B – But you still gotta help me find my broom, man!" now she's pleading. "I – I can't remember where I dropped it, so you're the only one who could help me find it!"

He was about to reach for the tea pot and refill his tea, but hearing Marisa's reason, he didn't. He instead gave the witch a weird glance. "Why should I help you?"

Upon hearing that, Marisa's shoulders sagged visibly. She did just attempted to mug him and what he did, punching her, could be considered as an act of self-defense since it was her who attacked him first. Twice, nonetheless. Reimu saw this and thought to herself about what the man was trying to do with this. He's not just pointing out Marisa's mistake just because she's wrong, right?

"I… I…" of course, she's speechless. She didn't know what to say. This was probably the first time, ever since a long time, in her life that she'd felt guilty. The first one was when she accidentally broke her dad's project when she was younger, but that was a childish mistake, she was not entirely at fault. However, this time, she was at fault. So, who was she to ask help and hoping that she'll receive it from him?

Naruto did not say anything, he was still staring at her, waiting as if he had all the time in the world. The easy going blue eyes he had from before was gone, replaced by a slightly colder but still cold nonetheless icy blue orbs that could be mistaken as the eyes of a parent scolding his child.

Marisa had yet to state a plausible reason as to why Naruto should help her. Reimu felt that if Marisa told him, she'd get the help she needed.

"It's because I need help. Please."

Hearing her answer, Naruto smiled. "Good answer kid. Now, don't blink."

"Wha –" that came from both Reimu and Marisa.

In a flash, only Reimu remained in the shrine, both blondes were gone.

Being the only one left in the shrine, Reimu sat there, wandering.

* * *

"Ah! Here it is! I found it!"

Seeing that Marisa had finally found her broom suggested that he'd done his job here. Honestly speaking, he knew where the broom was the whole time. He just didn't bother telling her where, this served both as a punishment for the witch and his way of getting back at her.

' _If you didn't lower your guard at that moment, you would notice something suspicious about that box of hers.'_

Naruto ignored the comment, but he heard it loud and clear. Clearly, he's growing old. The last time he trained seriously was more than a hundred years ago, during the First World War. But even then, he'd still need to minimize his powers a little bit to avoid discovery from people. Just think of all the crazy experiment Hitler would've done to him… he shuddered at the thought. Sasuke acts as both his sensor and confirmation to dangerous situation. While sensing things was more of his forte, the help that the formless Uchiha gave him throughout the course of countless years of travelling proved to be useful. He may know how dangerous shit is, but he's not the one telling himself that he's dumb enough to approach dangerous situation. So, in short, Sasuke was his reminder.

He saw Marisa jogging towards him with broom in her hand, and an extremely pleased and content expression on her face upon being able to find her broom.

"So, anything else you left behind here?" Naruto asks humorlessly.

"No, nothing. I guess I'm gonna go back to Reimu's." Marisa told him, unsure.

Naruto instead shrugged. "Alright, you do that. I'm going to explore a little bit, our little encounter earlier disrupted me from having the pleasure of exploring this place. And I have you to thank for that." Marisa sunk further, in guilt. "But don't worry about that, now I'm more aware of how things go in this place." He turned, showing his back to the witch. Then, he raised a hand. "See ya around, and hopefully the next time we meet, it didn't have to go the way it did earlier."

And just like that, he left, walking away and eventually disappearing from Marisa's line of sight.

After several minutes of walking, he was sure that the girl was nowhere near him. That's good, because now he needed some time to think to himself. His encounter earlier with Marisa was no displeasure at all, in fact, it's a good sign. It made him more aware of how things work in Gensokyo. Reimu wasn't kidding when she mentioned that almost everything here was solved through blasting each other's faces of with lasers.

That'll give him a heads up of how things will be in the future, but it's not like he's hoping for that kind of situation to play sometime soon.

As he ventured deeper into the forest, the stronger the negative energy he was picking up. This forest had been radiating this kind of energy ever since he left from the Human Village and it's not normal, at least not by an outsider's standards. Was this some sort of warning that the forest made to wandering travelers? If so, then it's doing a mighty fine job because if he's another normal Joe out there, he'd already be lost, terribly lost. Currently, his only way of navigating through the forest's eerie roads without getting lost was through his ability to sense things clearly.

He felt several life forms nearby, some of which were familiar and some of which were not. He could not tell what they were specifically, because he was not looking forward to it at all. Time past and it's already been an hour ever since he left Marisa. Not sure how he's going to go through his aimless journey without getting lost, but wasn't that the point of journeying aimlessly? To get lost? He had also wandered off from the main road, having been trekking through the forest's game tracks instead of the main road which provided little sense of safety from the very start.

He found a huge clearing, barren of any trees. He inspected the clearing and it was pretty wide, several yards long, almost as wide as a football field just wider. Suddenly, he got an idea.

"Since I'm going to be staying here for an unknown period of time… I guess it's only suitable for me to acquire a more permanent residence." The blonde uttered to himself, while brushing a trickle of sweat off from his forehead.

' _You're going to build a house? Oh, make sure that it has a dojo.'_

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto rolled his eyes. He crouched to set his briefcase down and he gave the clearing one last inspection. He took off his coat and laid it down nicely just beside his briefcase, before rolling the sleeves of his shirt. "Alright… let's just hope that those four years of being an architect was totally worth it."

His hands flashed quicker than a street light.

" **Mokuton: Shichūka no Jutsu."**

The earth beneath the clearing rumbled, giving the sign of something sprouting up from the ground. The Shichuka no Jutsu was a jutsu used by his captain, Yamato, during missions to provide the team with a comfortable and rather fancy camp. Basically, it's an instant-housing-jutsu that much explained what the jutsu really was. It works by sending chakra to ground and let the roots of nearby plants to be converted into raw materials. Since he had no natural affinity with Wood release, or Mokuton, he needed years to even come up with a solid structure. The first time he attempted to do this, he ended up with a shack, or at least something that closely resemble a shack. It took him years to be able to perform this jutsu without screwing up and practice, as usual, pays well.

He settled for a more traditional structure, as opposed to the western ones he had built in his lifetime. The building looked like your everyday inn, except that it's blander due to the lack of paint sans for the whirlpool symbol etched on the front of the door. It was definitely lacking in aesthetic value, but that could easily be changed with several paint and grumbling clones. He entered the building and of course, the interiors were already furnished with facilities that were made out of wood. Wooden chairs, tables, sliding doors and others. He checked the interiors and was satisfied with it.

He went back outside, not forgetting Sasuke's words earlier. He walked towards the back of the building where another, but smaller, structure was present. It's a dojo, not much can be said there.

Now that he had permanent housing in the forest, it's time to set up tags all around the house to ward off unwanted visitors while he's away.

* * *

"Thank you for your purchase!"

He gave the young clerk a nod, as well as a friendly smile before leaving the small shop with his purchase in hand. Once exiting the small shop, he stored the small bag inside his briefcase. He just purchased several packs of writing paper, he figured that if he was to stay here for an unknown period of time, he might as well work on his book on his free time. He's back in the Human Village, like everyone could tell and he checked out of the inn he was staying in yesterday. He told the innkeeper to keep the leftover money, no need to add more weight to his storage.

It's already evening and he planned on getting back to his newly built home immediately to retire early. Is it just him or he'd been sleeping in early these past few years? Man, being old sucks. He walked away, leaving the area for the next one. He's going to buy dinner and since he skipped lunch, he will have a big one tonight. He visited several vendors, purchasing foods ranging from meat buns, takoyaki, and sweets. All of them were stored conveniently inside his storage seal.

He was walking towards the direction of the village's entrance, but, he could not help noticing the pair of eyes that were staring at him the moment he had finished shopping for food. Of course, he could not just stop, approach his observer and ask him or her what the hell he or she wanted with him. That's embarrassing.

"Excuse me?"

Oh, it seemed that he didn't have to do that.

Turning around, he came face to face with a woman several inches shorter than him… if you count her ridiculous hat as a part of her height.

The woman was unlike any other woman he'd ever since in his life and he knew immediately why, it had got to be the silver hair, yeah it got to be. Unlike the little number of people he knew who had silver hair, the woman's had blue highlights streaked just perfectly to create a beautiful mix between the two color. Her eyes were round and mesmerizing, sharing the same color as cocoa. She wore a hat that looked like a building of some sort with a small red ribbon on top of it, upon closer inspection, there were markings similar to glyphs that surrounded the headpiece. She wore a dress with a color of light blue with short white sleeves, and a red ribbon is tied on the bottom of her collar.

The first thing Naruto did, after secretly examining her, was to recognize her presence. "Yes, may I help you?"

The woman was pleased at his display of politeness. "Are you new here?"

He nodded. "I am. I got here just a day ago, why? Is there a matter miss?"

The woman shook her head. "No, I was just making sure." She fixed her hat into place, straightening it. "My name is Kamishirasawa Keine, I am this village's only school teacher and its guardian as well." She did a small light bow but somehow managed to keep her hat from falling.

Upon the woman's introduction, Naruto smiled. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, just a travelling man." He gave her a more informal salute.

"Have your stay here been well?"

Surprised, he may be, but inquisitive, he is not. "Yes, in fact, I've just recently got to explore the village as much as I could and I have to say, it's wonderful."

"Oh, how so?"

"I've been travelling a lot, so I don't really get that much time enjoying the place I stay on." He explained himself briefly. If there's one thing he wanted to know it's why was she being so inquisitive about things?

"I see… you are an outsider, then." Keine came to that conclusion. She knew this right from the start, mind you, but it could not hurt her to have the man confirm things himself.

"That I am. The shrine maiden in a rundown shrine had an easy time telling me that." He said while laughing lightly.

"Oh, you mean Reimu? Hakurei Reimu?" Keine was actually surprised to hear that he'd met Reimu.

"Yes, Reimu. Shrine maiden, run down shrine… not so hard to forget." He chuckled. "She was the one who told me about the village, and I had the pleasure of having tea with her earlier today."

"You went to the shrine yourself?!" that definitely got everyone's attention towards them. Keine had just shouted with a tone of disbelief and mild concern. "What were you thinking! It's dangerous for humans to be walking outside of the village unprotected!"

Naruto did not missed what she said there. 'Human'. Was she a yokai? "Ah, that it probably was. But I managed to make it there and back safely, see?" he gestured towards his form, still as fresh as the day he entered Gensokyo. "Besides, I'm quite capable in taking care of myself." and others too.

Regardless of his answer, Keine would have sighed either way. "Walking outside of the village is way too reckless even if you are capable of handling yourself, Uzumaki-san." She gave him a scolding glare, one that he hadn't seen in a very long year. "I assume that you choose to be a permanent resident of Gensokyo?" she suddenly asked.

At that, Naruto made a thinking pose. "Well… I won't say permanent… but I'm not leaving any time soon. Reimu kind of offered me the chance to go back, but I see no reason to." Not just yet, at least. "However, I managed to acquire permanent residence in the fore – "

"THE FOREST?!" Keine was just basically shouting at this point. "You ventured through the forest?!"

"Yeah?"

"WHY?!" the teacher demanded.

Now, Naruto is anything if not confused. "To build a house?" he said with a little bit of confusion.

Hearing his reason made Keine pinch the very bridge of her nose, closing her eyes and tapping her foot on the ground like any normal irritated person would do. Until she stopped. "Come with me." she didn't give him a choice when she just deliberately took him by the hand and began to drag him with her. "We're going to the village's office."

While being dragged, Naruto asked. "Why?"

Keine lifted her other hand, showing three fingers. "Because one, new outsiders who decided to take residency in Gensokyo for more than one week must be registered first before he or she has the right to buy a property." She lowered on finger. "Two, you've committed on building a property in a forest, and that's not allowed." Now there's only one finger left. "Three, I'm going to educate you on how dangerous it is to venture outside of the village without company."

Naruto frowned. Ignoring the unrestrained laughing of a certain formless Uchiha somewhere within the deepest parts of his mind, he'd be lying if he said that he was not slightly, at the very least, irritated at how nosy this woman was making herself sound like. But deep inside, he knew that she was just concerned and doing her job of someone who's responsible for the safety of the people in the village.

Reminded him of someone.

Not long later, he's brought to the office being made to fill several papers, signing several more, getting an earful of lecture from the silver haired woman and got some of his money sucked out from his pocket for 'tax' purposes. In other words, not the best time of the day for him.

"And remember, do not engage wild yokais!"

Now he's reminiscing his earlier days of being a disguised student in a college. "Yes, yes." He said, disinterested.

And he got a glare for that, as well as a slap to the wrist. "One yes is enough. Now, go back home and only straight for home. Do not explore the wilderness on the night because –"

"-It's when yokais are most active…" he muttered, finishing Keine's sentence for her.

Keine nodded in approval of his words.

Ignoring the formless idiot who was laughing his nonexistent butts off from within the deepest parts of Naruto's mind, the blonde turned to leave.

"Wait a moment, Uzumaki-san?"

But he was stopped.

Wincing, he prepared himself for another earful. "Yes?" he asked, as he turned to face her.

Instead of getting an earful, he saw her smile. "Don't get into trouble, okay?"

Naruto's face blanched. "Was that really necessary?"

At this, Keine giggled. "You just gave off the feeling of someone who's easy on getting into troubles."

Under his breath, Naruto agreed. "Well, can't do something about that." He said. "Now, anything more you want to say to me, Kamishirasawa-san?"

"Call me Keine, I know that my last name is quite a mouthful to say." She insisted.

"Then call me Naruto, I know that you will because it was you who insisted first." Hearing that, they both shared a small laugh.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Let's see… improving relationships with Reimu, check. Meeting Marisa, check. Introduce several other characters, check. Whew, looks like I completed my entire checklist. But don't get any ideas just yet, there's still no real pairing, or the idea of one. For now, let the story build up on itself.**

 **Speaking of relationship, I guess I'm pretty inconsistent when it comes to building those. This could be supported from real life evidence, sigh. Never mind my life, but I just wanted to say that the first few chapters will be introduction chapters. This story will be more than just an immortal Naruto spending the rest of his immortal life in Gensokyo while getting one or ten girls along in the process. There will be a real story and I can guarantee you that it will be different.**

 **Of course, different here could be taken as both good and bad. Give me… two or three more chapters, then I'll begin the first arc. Do note that you may find several other crossovers thrown into the story, for the sake of the storyline itself. I have several ideas on what interesting series to include and I can't wait to see your reactions.**


	4. The Red Mansion

**I know that I said to give me two or three more chapters to work on as a prologue, but suddenly, the gears in my head decided to work early so here is the first real chapter of this series. Note that starting from the next chapter onwards chapter length will be longer. That may or may not decrease update speed.**

 **Oh and… uh… reviews would be nice. Real nice.**

* * *

"So, what are we going to do?" Naruto's deep masculine voice asked his companion who was flying low on her broom beside him. He was walking and she was using a broom to levitate and carry herself.

The female companion shrugged carefreely from her floating broom. "I told you, we're meeting a friend of mine. Her name's Alice and she live deep inside the Forest of Magic." The witch briefly reminded the male blonde of what she had told him earlier.

Naruto hummed thoughtfully. The Forest of Magic. What a suitable name, considering the fact that this forest was very much alive. That's probably why he felt negative energy radiating from almost everywhere in this forest, maybe they're magic. It's hard to tell seeing that every form of energy that came from the outside will be immediately filtered into his system as chakra, no wonder Merlin got tired of teaching him that one time.

"So, what does this Alice has to do with me?"

"She's a fellow magician and something tells me that she'll want to put extra information into her grimoire." The hat wearing female blonde told him. "It's kind of a thing for us magician to record stuffs in our grimoires."

"And how am I related to these… 'stuffs' you're speaking about?" Naruto asked, still unsure of what the witch's motive was.

"The 'stuffs' we write into our grimoire is obviously related to magic." Marisa started explaining. "If we encounter people who're capable of using magic or at least powers that we haven't seen then we'll record them into our grimoire. That's the short explanation for that, wanna hear the longer one?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'll save you the troubles of doing that." He stated. "So it's some sort of magician pact, eh?"

Marisa looked at him incredulously. "No! Oh Gods, of course not!" she seemed very offended at this. The magician eyed the taller blonde warily, as if he was about to explode any moment. "Do you even know what a magician pact is?"

His shrug told her he didn't. Marisa sighed, for once, she knew how Reimu felt. "A magician pact is a method to bind someone or something together with the caster, a magician. When you mentioned it, I thought you knew about it, but anyway, it basically subjects the person into becoming a pseudo-slave for the magician. Of course, this isn't always the case to some magicians. Most magicians treat their slaves as servants, perhaps even a pet if it's not a human."

Naruto hummed. "So it's a binding ritual?"

Marisa clicked her tongue. "Yup, that's the correct term, ze." Marisa was silent for a few moments, before speaking once again. "Still… you speak as if you knew about us magicians, have you ever met one?"

Naruto saw no reason to not answer the witch. "I've met one, no, in fact, I've probably encountered several of them; I was just not paying that much attention to them. The one I know very well was an old man, he's a good person but unfortunately like every other old geezer out there, he's a lecher. But all antics aside, he's a person who's very devoted to his works; I can still remember him threatening to turn me into a mouse if I ever entered his study."

Marisa laughed, it was a feeling she could relate to.

Naruto resumed. "Merlin, the old geezer's name, was not a very sociable person. Magic, or the concept of magic, at that time was not widely accepted by people. Hell if they knew you dabbled in the occult, they'll execute you immediately!" Marisa was about to speak, but Naruto's continuation on his tale stopped her. "But Merlin was a special case, he was allowed to study magic solely for research purposes only. One day, I asked him if he could teach me magic. He said, 'sure, why not, you'll probably give up by the end of the day'. Then he taught me several things like finding my center and all that complicated mumbo-jumbo. My progress was slow, slower than anything I've ever experienced. So, as a result, he got tired of teaching and said that I should just stick to my own skills and swords." He shrugged.

"Hmm…" the witch hummed amusingly. "I wouldn't mind meeting this Merlin geezer."

"Ah, he's dead."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't be." The tall blonde shrugged. "The old geezer deserved it anyway."

Marisa didn't know why, but she felt that he was serious instead of joking when he said that.

* * *

For the rest of journey, they travelled in silence. Considering the length of their conversation, they have travelled very far deep into the forest. The Forest of Magic was a special forest, even more so due to its reputation of being dangerous to both yokais and humans. It had got to be because of the hallucinogenic mushroom growing literally on every single part of this forest. Naruto thought he smelt something weird from yesterday, ever since he entered this forest.

Their walking has taken them to a small clearing in the forest and standing in the middle of that small clearing was a house. A small, European styled house.

The witch led Naruto to the house, stopping just outside of the door to hop off from her floating broom. The witch knocked three times on the door at the same time shouting, "Alice! Alice I'm here ze!"

While waiting for this Alice person to open up the door and let them in, Naruto silently leaned his back on the pillar that supports the small veranda in front of the house. He watched with little amusement as Marisa called out for this Alice, reminded him of a little kid calling out her friend to play.

' _Just a_ _ **little**_ _kid, not_ _ **your**_ _kid?'_

Ignored, Naruto then watched as the door to the house was opened by someone from the inside. The door swung open, revealing a floating doll.

"Ah, Shanghai! Where's Alice?"

"…" the doll did not respond, but instead gestured inside of the house. It was aware of the male, but simply chose not to regard him.

"She's inside eh? Hope she's not busy… ah, let's come in Naruto."

The two entered the house, and the door behind them closed. Naruto was hit by a brief wave of nostalgia the moment he entered the room. The decoration that the interior had was probably the cause for that. While he was admiring the design, Marisa made herself right at home by jumping straight for the couch. Naruto saw the doll from earlier, Shanghai, float around the room here and there, before eventually disappearing deeper into the house.

"Oh Marisa, I didn't know that you brought a guest with you?"

That came from a different person, it was a girl who looked too young to be called a woman. Her name was Alice Margatroid, this was unknown to Naruto and she was one of the people in Marisa's little circle of friends. The first thing that made her so noticeable was that calculative yet somewhat meek dark blue orbs for eyes and short blonde hair. She had a red band on her hair, clothed in a ight blue dress with long white sleeves and a long pink ribbon going round her neck and another one round her waist. Since she was indoors, she was not wearing any shoes or sandals. Naruto mentally slapped himself for not doing the same since he was probably being rude.

'Rude? After all this year, it's still weird seeing you trying to be polite.'

"Yo Alice, and yeah he's the one I mentioned to you the other day." From the couch, Marisa greeted the owner of the house before telling her about Naruto's purpose.

Naruto saw as the calculative and scrutinizing look on the doll user's face transformed into something even more calculative and scrutinizing. "Hm… is he now…" her voice trailed off, lost in thought. It was at that moment when Alice figured everything out. "Ah, no wonder…"

She continued to speak like this to herself, and it was already getting awkward for Naruto. In an attempt to break the current uncomfortable situation, he coughed to his fist. "Ahem."

That shook Alice off from her own world. "Ah, my apologies." She straightened herself. "My name is Alice Margatroid, I am a friend of Marisa's. I suppose she told you why you're here already?"

Naruto blinked several times, before eventually answering. "She told me that magicians like you and her usually records stuffs into your journal."

"Grimoire." The doll maker corrected.

Naruto shrugged. "Yes, grimoire."

Alice nodded, happy that he understood of the situation. "That is true, please, take a seat. I shall have my dolls bring us some tea."

Naruto watched, amazed, as three more dolls flew from one side of the room before disappearing into the house. He sat down on one of the empty places on Alice's couch, next to Marisa. Alice herself took a seat opposite of her two visitors, being their host. The doll maker brushed a lock of blonde hair off from her shoulder, as it was obscuring her view.

"So, your name is Uzumaki Naruto-san, is it?"

"Yeah, but call me Naruto. I'm not one for formalities." The male in the room told her with a small kind smile.

Alice nodded, understanding. "I see, then please call me Alice." She told him. "But back to business, the reason why you're here was because as custom states, people who could perform magic or any other supernatural trait must be listed down in mine, Marisa's and another magician's grimoire."

At the mention of customs, Naruto got a little bit uneasy. "Is this another formality thing?"

Alice giggled at his apparent show of discomfort. "Yes, I'm afraid it is."

Naruto sighed, when in Rome, do as the Roman does… "Well, what do you want to know?" Alice did not miss the glint on his eyes.

"First, a question, are you aware of magic?"

"I am." He nodded. "I asked someone to mentor me a long time ago but he got tired and I never really touched anything about the subject anymore ever since then."

Alice nodded, finding his answer to be of satisfying value. "Next, another question; Marisa told me that you're capable of teleportation, is there anything else you could do beside it?"

"Depends," here, he shrugged. "I'm knowledgeable on several topics that might particularly interest someone who commands inanimate objects such as you, aside from that…" here, his lips stretched into a knowing smirk. "Let's just say that I have an arsenal of skills which is private to me only."

"You mentioned several topics that might interest me, can you mention some?" If one were to pay attention closely, they would notice that Alice was leaning forward slightly.

Alice froze when she saw his smirk transforming into that of a cynical one, one that made her flowing blood freeze. She saw the shadow that was projected by the sun light from outside danced, flickered around him, as if they were worshipping their lord and master. She swore on her right as a puppeteer that she saw his cool blue eyes flickering deadly red for a brief second. Marisa was out of tune, it seemed. Seeing that she was just sitting beside the male, reading a book she picked up from one of Alice's shelves without even being aware of the instant temperature drop that happened in the room. For a moment, she could hear the sound of wind howling from outside, but she was pretty sure that it was sunny just a moment ago. Alice's frozen breathing became ragged, similar to what a person would do when they suffered from panic attacks. She could feel buzzing sounds going off in her ears, it's as if she had insects crawling inside of them. Cold sweat trickled down her forehead and neck, drenching the dress she was wearing.

" **Oh…"** even his voice changed, from bored to something that sounded like someone who was having a lot of fun in appearing scary. **"Something like… constructing a human puppet made out from flesh?"**

For a brief instant, Alice found it hard to breathe, but all difficulty in breathing and perception disappeared when she heard the man laugh sardonically. "Yes… that topic might interest you." He did not miss the look she was giving him, but it did make him smile wider. "Don't worry, I don't dabble in those kinds of experiments anymore."

Alice did not miss the clue word, which was 'anymore'. After re-settling herself, Alice found it easier to speak once again. "I – I see. Ahem. I guess that's all about it… then…" Alice suddenly stood from her. "Please wait here while I check on the refreshments." She excused herself with an uneasy smile.

At the kitchen, Alice was mentally composing herself. Just who was that man? She knew that he was an immortal, she knew that much and only that. But for him to be able to have that much of an effect on her… was that an illusion he casted to intimidate her? If so, for what reason? Alice slowly began to cut her thoughts, thinking that she should not concern herself with this matter now. No… she should be concerned.

Alice encountered a lot of people, despite not being in so many places. Her high sensitivity to 'special' beings like immortals, made her aware of things that she probably should not be aware of. This sense helped her in several situations before, but it seemed that it backfired in her current one. Uzumaki Naruto is not a normal person, not even by a yokai's standpoint. He's a threat. A potential threat. Even so, she should not worry too much just yet, she didn't want people get the wrong idea of her of being wary of Naruto because of something she could not quite explain.

"Hey, you done asking him things?" Marisa, who had walked into the kitchen during Alice's segment in her own thoughts, nearly made the doll maker jump.

"Y – Yeah, I'm done, I'm just checking the refreshments." She gestured to the side, where three of her earlier dolls were busy preparing tea with their small form.

Marisa nodded, satisfied with her friend's reason. "You must've discovered a lot about him, eh?"

Alice was confused. "Eh? What do you mean?"

Marisa grinned. "It's because you looked so happy when you were questioning him. I never see you smile like that when talking to a person, especially a complete stranger." Her grin got a little bit… teasing. "What's the matter? Is little Alice charmed by the big bad whiskered man? Hmm~?" nudge, nudge.

Being at the receiving end of Marisa's teasing, the doll maker got a little bit red on her face, until she remembered how her conversation went with the man earlier. "No! Marisa!" she shouted, panicked. "Weren't you paying attention to us before?!" she asked like someone who was in a hurry.

Marisa blinked. "Yeah, you're both enjoying your Q'n'A session so much that I even bother not to disturb you two."

What? How? Was it an illusion after all!? Alice's eyes trailed over back to the living room, which was visible from the kitchen. And from where she was standing, she saw the male blonde, who was seated politely on his original spot, giving her a small wink before sipping from a tea cup that her doll had just served. Her feet got cold.

"Marisa." Marisa went nervous when she heard how serious, dire and grim her friend sounded. Added with the fact that Alice was staring deep into her eyes while holding her firm by the shoulders, it almost made her scared. Alice did not blink. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

"N – No, I wasn't…" the witch uttered out uneasily.

Alice knew that Marisa wasn't lying. Because if she did, she would know about it. And that's what made things even scarier.

"Hey, Alice, what's wrong ze? You're creeping me out…" Marisa rarely saw Alice being so… paranoid, so don't blame her for getting worried.

"N – Nothing… I'm just… tired, yeah, tired." Despite her current feelings, she managed to give Marisa an assuring smile. "Anyway, let's return."

When they returned, the two girls were greeted with a sight of Naruto who was currently reading a scroll which was not there from the moment he entered the house. "Watcha reading?" Marisa was brave enough to ask the currently reading man.

Naruto did not let his eyes stray away from his scroll. "Just an old letter written by an old friend, nothing that important." Immediately, he stored his letter into his briefcase, much to Marisa's disappointment. He redirect his attention to Alice, who reacted a little bit upon being subjected to his attention. "Are we done here?"

Alice was torn on feeling mad at how potentially dangerous he can be or guffawed at how calm and innocent he could make himself look like. "Yes, we are done." Even for her, that came out a little too sweet.

Naruto nodded, before looking back at Marisa again. "So, is there anywhere else you would like to show me?" obvious sarcasm is obvious.

"Actually, yes."

The smug and sarcastic look on the man's face disappeared almost instantly.

"Alice, I'm taking him out to meet Patche. You know how Patche gets when she misses out things like this." Marisa intentionally gestured to the male blonde.

"Excuse me, can you please stop talking as if I'm not here or something?"

"Hmm… you have a point. I'll come with you too, so let me get my things ready."

"Oi, don't ignore me."

' _Feel my pain, mwahahaha!'_

* * *

Inside a dark and unnamed place somewhere none can name, a voluptuous, beautiful woman watched the scene of three blondes through a conventional gap with an amused smile hidden behind a purple paper fan. She was none other than the Gap Youkai herself, the Youkai of Boundaries, the Youkai that lurks in the Boundary… but to some people, she was simply known as Yakumo Yukari.

Yakumo Yukari was not just a woman, she's not any yokai either. The being known as 'Yakumo Yukari' is a one-of-a-kind case, there's no one as wicked, crafty and manipulative as her.

Until now.

Most famous for being hailed as one of the most knowledgeable beings in Gensokyo and presumably the outside world as well, there's really nothing that she did not think of. She knew Uzumaki Naruto, she knew his skills, she knew his capabilities and she knew what drove him to keep living despite how tired, unbearable and cruel immortality is. Mortal, tremble before her. Just like any other random happenings that might or might have not happened in Gensokyo, Yakumo Yukari might or might have not been the one responsible for the immortal legend's presence here in Gensokyo.

Oh who's she kidding with, of course she's the one!

Why? Because why not?! Why not let someone who's capable of facing a pantheon of cosmic Gods, someone who has managed to outlive hundreds lesser Gods and someone who's more than capable of bringing immediate and certain doom upon Gensokyo to… Gensokyo? Why not? So dangerous… so mysterious… so…

Wonderful.

She knew Uzumaki Naruto, but the same could not be said for the man. She knew that he did not know her, it was something fortunate. Because if he did, then she wouldn't have brought him here in the first place.

"Yukari-sama, Chen is missing." A voice called out from within the darkness somewhere, sounded a little bit worried.

"Oh Ran." Yukari's soft, melodious and sultry voice rung out; seemingly to have echoed everywhere. "Have you checked the usual place?"

"I have, Yukari-sama."

The parasol carrying yokai giggled behind her fan. "Then she is probably playing. You know cats, they tend to disappear but always return." Yukari said. "Please leave Ran, I'm in dire need of my private time."

Somewhere in the darkness, a figure nodded. Then, the other person's presence completely disappeared, leaving the yokai alone in her personal space.

At being left alone, Yukari sighed melodramatically. She gazed, her gaze softening at the sight of a familiar whiskered blonde replying to a certain witch's questions uncaringly. She knew just how dangerous Uzumaki Naruto could be, to both Gensokyo and the entire world in general. He was one of the few people that could so easily defeated her in both a fair and unfair fight. But knowing the man's origins, both didn't matter either way.

"Uzumaki Naruto… how have I longed to meet you." In truth, she could have easily done this. But for the sake of the plot, her own plot, she decided that somewhere in the near future will be the perfect time to introduce herself formally to the man. No. Not _man_. Uzumaki Naruto was a being that has transcended above men, above yokai and above several lesser deities. He's no _man_ ; he's a being of his own. A one of a kind. A wildcard.

Just. Like. _Her_.

* * *

He stopped dead in his tracks. This did not go unnoticed by his companions, but Marisa was the one vocal enough to voice it. "Hey, Naruto, you alright there?"

He ignored the doll maker's attempt of physically bracing herself for something to happen.

Marisa could only stare confusedly at the male blonde who was seemingly frozen in place, as if he could not move from his spot. Then, she saw his I'm-bored-as-heck looking face morphed into something she hadn't seen present on. It's only for the briefest of moments, but it was a look similar to the ones she'd seen on Reimu's face when she was exterminating yokais seriously, Patchouli's face when she's analyzing countless thesis worth of magical topics and even that gardener from the netherworld when she's… standing. Youmu's always serious.

In an instant, that look on his face disappeared, as if it wasn't even present in the first place. The man gave Alice and her a reassuring wave. "It's nothing. I just hear someone saying my name through the wind." Was his reason.

"Whoa, you can tell if someone's telling your name by feeling it from the wind?" Marisa asked, the sound of awe was slightly evident on her tone.

"I didn't say I was feeling it, I said I _hear_ it." Naruto corrected Marisa's claim.

"Is that included in one of the things that you consider private?" This question came from the quiet blonde who had yet to do anything but cast wary glance at Naruto. Alice asked, but for more than just sating her curiosities.

"Unfortunately, yeah." Naruto nodded, a displeased expression on his face. "It's been a while ever since I hear them speak."

"'Them'? You refer to the wind, a figure of element, as them?" again, this came from Alice.

"Everything that involves nature is universally referred to in plural, because there's no way of measuring them aside from the state of destruction they leave. Would you measure a tornado, which has left an impact on a small town similar to an aftermath that was caused by hundreds of men with a knack for public vandalism? Would you compare a landslide equivalent to a mess that hundreds of people would cause? See, it all makes sense. Notice the difference between the following statements: 'A rushing stampede of people could be mistaken as a small earthquake.' And 'A small earthquake could be mistaken as a rushing stampede of people.' Which one sounds more believable to you?"

"The first one." Alice answered quickly, not sure where he was going.

Naruto nodded. "There you go. It shows that an action that can be done by nature alone, needed several more than just one person to accomplish." He then concluded, "Which is why I refer to nature in plural, it deserves more respect and attention than just one person."

Alice went quiet, then, she spoke again, this time to Marisa.

"Marisa, you sure he's not a professor or something?"

"I don't know, are you a professor, Naruto?"

"I _was_ a professor."

Then Marisa did a 'there you go' motion to Alice.

Not long later, they have reached their targeted destination. A very large, very red and very fancy mansion with a very large front gate with a very, very lazy gatekeeper.

"Wait that's a gatekeeper?" Naruto asked, honestly shocked for once. "I thought that was a statue!"

Currently, they've let themselves through the gates. Alice, who was a little bit dissatisfied at the fact that they had just sneaked into someone else's property, spoke, "Meiling tend to have that kind of attitude when she's working, the kind of attitude that gets her into trouble all the time with her employer."

The look of shock on the man's face disappeared when he heard that, replaced by a look of damn-I'm-impressed expression. "I can respect that."

"You most certainly cannot." Alice argued back, a little perplexed.

"Hey, hey, stop bickering you two, let's get inside already." Marisa, who was still a little sad that they didn't get to bust through the library's wall just as she would usually do, spoke out as she walked.

"Mother, it seems that our daughter is beginning to get impatient, lately."

"I can see that, father. I wonder who she takes that up from."

"Oi, oi! Don't you play along with him Alice, ze!" that reaction got two amused laughter from two different blondes.

The trio of blondes walked towards the huge wooden double door, the entrance to the mansion. Naruto, being a new face in Gensokyo, whistled upon entering said doors. He lived in mansions before, some of which were owned by people who loved to flaunt their wealth very, very much. But to be in a mansion belonging to someone who loved to flaunt their wealth and the color red so much? This was his first time being a mansion which was colored in so much red. The decorations were lavish too, ranging from curtains made from fine cloth, fragile and priceless Chinas, and several suit of armors that he recognized to be originating from the early medieval periods. Those suit of armors were polished as well, whoever's working here must be dedicated in their work.

"Hey if ya don't mind me asking, are we allowed to just enter like this?" while in the middle of following his two female companion, he asked the question that was struggling to escape from his mouth.

"Shouldn't be a problem." Marisa told him carefreely. "As long as you don't blow shit up, something that I prefer to be doing, you'll be fine."

Just for that, Marisa got a disapproving look from Alice and a confused one from Naruto. "What she meant to say was we're allowed to roam freely in the mansion as long as we don't cause any trouble for the owner." Alice attempted to correct her friend's words. "I haven't been visiting here in a while, so I am quite surprised to see that Sakuya did not greet us on the front door."

Naruto did not bother on asking who this Sakuya person was, because the moment he did thought of it, it seemed that they have arrived to their destination.

* * *

"This is the place? A library?"

"Marisa… I do not like this man's tone when he's referring to my library."

Marisa laughed at her friend's flat response to Naruto's question. She had just introduced Naruto to Patchouli, who was the librarian and owner of the library in the Scarlet Devil Mansion or known by its name, Voile. Patchouli was one of the type of people that Naruto had never met before, and to be honest, he could understand why. Having introduced herself as a magician, similar to Marisa and Alice, she was a practitioner in the arcane arts of magic. This circumstances have made her a complete shut in, or in Marisa's terms, a hikikomori.

"But Marisa, you're not a shut in." Naruto pointed out.

"Eh, I just love exploring. And I don't read that much books." The witch argued back.

"With the number of books that you have yet to return after your last visit here?" Patchouli rolled her eyes. "I doubt it." The purple magician, a name that was easily shown through the color of her clothing, coughed several times before eyeing the new blonde in the room. "So, I take it that you're a new anomaly in Gensokyo?"

"All living beings are anomaly, but I'm just one of the few special cases." A cheeky reply was cheeky.

But it seemed that Patchouli could respect that cheekiness. "Huh, I see." A book came floating towards her direction but Naruto did not seem shocked or surprised by this. "I'll make this quick, because I was in the middle of research when you happened." She casted a nasty glare at a certain witch's direction. "And I would have appreciate it if someone made an appointment with me before coming here."

Patchouli, to him, seemed like your typical introvert and quiet woman until you actually got to know her. His encounter with introvert women had been well, in fact, his first wife was an introvert. A shy introvert. But moving on, Patchouli also struck him as someone who's not so proactive. Her reputation for being a shut in aside, her coughing and wheezing gave him an idea of her having an internal sickness. Something that has to do with the respiratory organs; asthma.

Being someone who spends most of life indoors, it wouldn't be a surprise if her condition worsened over the years, in fact it probably had. Patchouli's long purple hair and bright eyes of the same color were two indication of her being nicked the purple magician by Marisa. She wears pink pajama-like clothing and a night-cap with a gold crescent moon on it, which was apparently, her daily wear. Her slightly hunched posture gave her shut in look an extra reassurance that she won't be mistaken as not being one.

"Please, sit down." Patchouli sent a small stool floating towards where they were, at this point, Marisa and Alice decided to observe from a distance, knowing how much concentration was needed. "Same rules as Alice's I guess; answer all questions truthfully and don't lie, because I know when you do."

From her spot, Alice loosened the collar of her blouse slightly.

"Okay, let's begin." Again, she coughed. "First: do you know magic."

"I know magic."

"Second: Have you tried magic."

"I have tried magic, and failed."

"Third question: Do you want to use magic?"

"No."

Patchouli nodded. "We're done here. Now you know where the door is, so there's no need for me to show you off. Have a nice day."

Just like that, Patchouli walked off.

Three blondes blinked at the same time but it was Marisa who spoke first. "That's it? Damn, I know she doesn't like to move much but… damn." She shrugged. "Oh well, Patche's Patche I guess…"

Raising himself from the stool, Naruto admit that he will need to get used to how people actually interact with each other. "Well that was quick – hey where's Alice?"

Marisa looked around and indeed, the doll maker was nowhere to be found. "Huh? She was just here a second ago…"

On the flip side, Alice was talking Patchouli.

"I'm telling you Patchouli, he's not normal!" it's strange for Patchouli to hear Alice so serious and threatened. No, perhaps not threatened, but just paranoid about someone, a newcomer nonetheless. Alice hissed as lowly as she could, to avoid the other blondes from hearing her.

"No one, who has entered this mansion, was normal. If you're talking about him being an immortal, I can already tell that from the first look and Gensokyo has at least one or two immortals roaming around, it's normal isn't it?" Patchouli said while magically using her powers to pull several books from the shelves as well as carrying them.

"I know…" for a moment, it seemed that Alice had nothing to argue. "But you know what I mean, he's dangerous! Earlier in my house, I was pretty sure that he was using an illusion on me. Marisa did not notice it, it was as if he was intentionally aiming his… spell or whatever at me!"

"Illusions are not real, Alice, you being so freaked out about it clearly proves that the man is an illusionist." Then she blinked. "Hm… but I didn't sense him lying at all when I told him whether or not he'd used magic before…"

"See?! That's my point!" the doll maker.

"Perhaps it was not magic that he used on you? If that was the case, then he wasn't exactly lying when I asked him that question." Patchouli's impressed, she'll even admit it. "Smart man, you sure he's not a professor or something?"

"I asked that same question to Marisa earlier today."

"Ah." Patchouli acknowledged. "Still, I do not know why you are so suspicious about him. If he has clear malevolent intentions, I'm sure that you would have been able to detect it right away."

"I might be, but it's exactly that. He made it look like as if he has bad intentions, but he seems like someone who doesn't." Alice didn't have to put that much emphasis on her tone to let Patchouli know of her current confusion on the matter about the newcomer. "What do you think I should do, Patchouli?"

After reading a small stanza from a book, Patchouli closed it to look at her fellow magician. "For now, observe him well. See if anything he does confirms your suspicion of him, afterwards… I don't know, I'll leave that to you."

Hearing her friend's advice, Alice felt grateful. "Thank you Patchouli, I just don't want to sound like someone who's overly reacting over something like this…" she knew that Patchouli was not the most sociable of person, and it's not like she had the rights to say that too, but Patchouli could be really nice and understanding.

'But isn't that what you're doing right now…' obviously, Patchouli could not just say that out loud, otherwise she might offend Alice. "You're welcome. Now, I'm sure that your purpose for visiting is over, right? If so, I need to return to my work."

Alice gave her purple clothed friend an understanding nod. She was about to leave, until a small earthquake stopped her from doing so.

 **BOOM**

Both magicians were not given enough time to register the shock of a small scale earthquake happening because they wasted no time on heading out to find the source of the disaster. And it can only be two.

Marisa or Flandre.

They hope that it was the former.

* * *

 **Author's Note: To be continued in an encounter between our immortal blonde and a certain little sister of the devil.**

 **I introduced three characters here, Yukari, Alice and Patchouli. And I hope I did well in characterizing the both of them, since those two were hard to characterize. I've read several original Touhou fictions in FF, but this was as far as I could go without obviously imitating existing personas from other people's story and I think that it's way more interesting this way.**

 **Originally, I plan to continue more, but I promise that the next chapter will be longer. Who knows, you might just get to see Naruto in action?**

 **Well, for now, I just want to tell you guys have a merry Christmas or happy holidays if you're not celebrating it.**

 **Next chapter should be up in a while, depending on my mood.**

 **So, until then, see you.**


	5. Little Sister

**I guess it's time to official start the first arc of this story. With that said, I'm sadly – or proudly – to announce that this story will have longer chapter, but in turn, slower update speed. I think that that's a fair trade, but who knows, I might just spam upload whenever I feel like it. Tis' the seasons, after all, and it's beginning to end, sadly.**

 **This chapter will feature soundtracks that I personally think belong in some of the scenes, so feel free to check them out or ignore them. Oh and I hope you won't mind custom, non-canon spells. I will have a perfectly good reason for this on the bottom of the chapter.**

* * *

As a vampire, there's much that she could do. But unfortunately, due to her uncontainable destructive raw power, Flandre Scarlet was not allowed to leave her room for more than a hundred years. This was all done for her sake and others' as well. Despite the condition she was placed into, Flandre fully realized that there was no other choice as she was becoming a threat to her family.

Flandre loved her sister and she still did so now, she could never hate her sister for doing locking her away in the basement. Tough love… they say.

Sakuya, their maid, would always drop by to leave her food and new toys for her to play with. Flandre loved the both of them, even though the latter were more prone to break. Their gate guard, Meiling, would occasionally drop by and play with her whenever she had some free time to spend… something that the gate guard did not have that much nowadays. Patchouli would also visit, but only to check if the living condition of her room had changed or not, still, Flandre appreciated the visit. And her sister, Remilia – though she had not been visiting that often – cared for her too.

In other words, she loved her family.

Nothing can change that, not even the lonely nights of pain and solitude.

But today will be different for Flandre because today was a special day.

"I smell a new toy." From within the darkest corner of a lonely room in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, a little child grinned.

Above, a grown man shivered.

"Ughh…" Naruto, who had been wandering around the hallways of the mansion with his partner in crime, suddenly shivered as if somebody had just dumped a bucket of ice underneath his clothes.

' _You okay?'_

"Yeah." The immortal grunted whisperingly. "It's that familiar feeling from the one I felt earlier outside of the mansion… only ten times deadlier.

 _'Hn, be careful.'_

"Aw, I didn't know you cared." The blonde did not receive a reply for that, but he was not joking when he felt something ominous creeping down his back the moment he was near this mansion. Earlier, just outside of the mansion, the feeling he felt was more subtle; only doing it for the purpose of observing him. But the one he felt seconds ago, it was like being awaken from a nightmare; it nearly made him jump. Ten times worse than feeling Kurama's chakra for the first time, he dared say.

Something seemed suspicious about this mansion, and it was starting to show the more he explored this puzzle of a hallway. Perhaps there was something that Marisa or Alice was not telling him. Something like the origins or the owner of this place. The more he explored this hallway, more and more clues were being exposed to him. First, he knew that all the things he'd seen here was pretty damn old; he recognized several of them to be originating from the early 15th century or anywhere between the time period. Several artworks he recognized to be originating from that time period and also several antiques.

Second, the owner of the mansion must really love red. He knew that he mentioned this before but he couldn't help but say it again. So far, the only colors for the decoration used were either red or purple. These two colors were also symbolic for being worn by nobles or wealthy people. Reminded him of that one time where he got into an argument with a painter in Italy that orange was the color to go. Too bad he couldn't appreciate his opinion.

And third, the employees of this mansion must be compensated greatly for their work. Despite how spacious and dusty this place could be – he doubted that even tens of the world's most efficient maids couldn't make this place as spotless as what it is now – without the proper cleaning, the staffs that worked here managed to make it look spotless and clean.

But then, he was suddenly reminded of his sole point being here. "Hey Marisa-kun, shouldn't we leave?"

Marisa slowed down her walking pace while turning her head and twisting her body slightly to face him who was walking several steps slower than her. "What? You dumb? Hell no, I'm gonna go and borrow a few things!" she declared proudly, before squealing in a high school girl-esque like manner.

Naruto just watched her walking form with a dry expression. "Welp, there goes her true colors…" Reimu wasn't kidding when she said that this witch was a kleptomaniac.

He looked away for a few moments, just so that he could take his eyes from the girl who was going about her borrowing-without-permission-spree. "Hey can we just go no – ah she's not here anymore!" She left him alone! how dare she!

' _You blondes have very low attention span. Is that common genetics or just plain idiotic trait?'_

"Aaand for that, I'm not talking to you for the next three hours." He shut his mental connection more permanently this time. Well, at this point, he could always exit through the front gates or return to the library where he'll regroup with Alice. But he got the feeling that doing that would be a waste of time, so, he decided to search for Marisa with the knowledge of finding more adventure – read: trouble – when he's exploring with the witch.

Whilst walking, he activated one of his many skills. Sage Mode. He said skill because Sage Mode, like any other skill out there, can be learnt; should one accept the immediate and ultimate the skill had as an outcome. Turning in a statue sucked, trust him, he knew. Activating Sage Mode was as simple as closing his eyes before reopening them again, causing the orange tattoos-like-make up to appear on his eye lids. His normally blue cerulean eyes transformed into a pair of bright ember sclera with black horizontal pupils.

He was not expecting two things.

The first one would be the tremendous amount of malevolent energy suddenly hitting him head on like a wave on the sea. It nearly overwhelmed him, causing him to stagger a little bit. Second was the fact that said energy was approaching. Here. Naruto gagged a little bit, the side effects of being caught by surprise from such levels of malevolent and hateful vibe. For once, he showed downright displeasure on his face. He never liked it when he's the one overwhelmed with negative energy… only he's the one who's supposed to that, dammit.

He decided that it would be wise to just return to the library at this point, there's no reason for him to harm himself by encountering who or whatever was coming his wa-

"EHGADS!" Naruto barely dodged a red orb of destruction. Said orb hit the wall down on the other side of the hallway, completely pulverizing it, leaving no traces behind; not even bricks.

"Ah why oh why must this always happen to me…" he said that as he looked at the culprit who had just aimed that massive crimson orb of doom right at him. The immortal face palmed. "And a blonde one at that… and she's a kid. God why do you hate me?" he whined loudly that it rang throughout the entire hallway.

"Ehehehe!" a disturbing childish giggling can be heard coming out from the culprit's mouth. As his earlier description stated, the culprit was a blonde girl kid. Said blonde girl kid was floating above the carpeted floor, her crystal wings glowing in their own respective colors. The child wore a dress and vest, with a pink shirt underneath and socks. She also donned a pink mob cap with a red ribbon attached to it. It's still amazing how frilly everyone else's dresses were, but that's not something he should be paying attention too.

"So you're the one I felt from downstairs!" the loli said out in an almost uncontainable glee. "What's your name mister?"

"Ohoho? It seems that the kid has some manners after all." Naruto replied flatly. "Uzumaki Naruto is my name, now kid, what's your name?"

Flandre's eyes illuminated a dangerous glint. "Flandre Scarlet!" this time, she did say it in glee. "I can tell that you'll be really fun to play with, mister!"

Naruto actually winced upon hearing that. "Uh… now that's wrong, oh so wrong…" he looked around, particularly at the wall the girl just destroyed a few moments ago. "Uh… but won't we destroy the mansion if we _play_?"

"It's okay, Sakuya will fix it." The young girl said in a dismissing manner, her cheerful expression then returned. "Now, can we play?"

He remembered what Reimu said about the duels that happened in Gensokyo. Basically, the duel was something that both participants must agree to; it can't happen if it's one-sided. But sometimes, in situations such as the one he's in currently, it will just happen regardless of how many flying fucks he did not give into participating.

"Fine, fine…" he muttered in an apprehensive manner.

 **Play Owari no Seraph – OST X.U (dj-jo's Version)**

"Just let me set down my bag-"

He was not allowed to set his bag down, because Flandre lunged at him like a little fiery devil fresh out of whatever hell's definition of mercy is. Contrary to what most people believed, instincts never triggered reflex. Reflex would not be reflex if it needed instinct in ordered to be triggered. What Naruto did was neither. It was anticipation. He knew that the little kid-devil will lunge at him the moment he let his guard down. The briefcase that he owned was used being used as shield against the little girl's powerful charge kick. But amazingly, the storage item showed no signs of being damaged or whatsoever.

The girl's onslaught on him, or his briefcase to be accurate, did not stop there. "ORYAAAA!" with a loud, gleeful scream; she delivered high speed kicks that sent him skidding with every kicks she delivered. Seeing that this was probably going nowhere, Flandre lunged backwards.

"Wow! Not only you're fast, you're strong too!" that amount of cheerfulness in her voice didn't really fit the whole situation here.

Naruto frowned. While she was definitely having a good mood out of this, he most certainly not. "Hmm… that reaction time was way slower than usual." Normally, he would've reacted much faster. Oh believe him, because usually, no one could even do that to him because he'd be faster than them. "I'm getting rusty here…"

Flandre, out for some fun, surged towards him again; this time, she was accompanied by hundreds of familiar looking red orbs behind her.

Normally, anyone would've said 'oh fuck' and dive out of the way.

Normally, Uzumaki Naruto would summon clones in order to soften the incoming barrage of certain death for him.

But for this one special occasion, he decided not to. He dodged, but not entirely. He now knew what Reimu meant by duels. Duels were meant to last longer than a normal spar, because not only it served the purpose of settling a dispute, but also for entertainment. He slipped through whatever spaces he could see in between, and due to millennia of experience, he could spot those openings easily. He dodged them so fluidly, like running water.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HE – HOLLY SHIT!" Marisa was guffawed at what her eyes were seeing.

Naruto, still with his everyday bored expression on his face, was side stepping to avoid Flan's bullets! Hell not even she could do that!

"Hm! Looks like you're more fun than I thought, mister Naruto!" Flandre brought out both of her hands, extending them forward. "Let's bring out the bigger toys!"

Naruto dodged the entire barrage for real this time, seeing as the girl was preparing her trump card. He eyed the winged girl curiously and he connected the dots. "Ah, magic…" it all made sense now. This girl was exactly like him when he was still Kurama's container, a freaking powerhouse of highly volatile energy.

Then the immortal grimaced. "Hm… this might take longer."

"OI! What the hell are you doing?! Get the hell outta there!"

"Oh Marisa!" Flan had taken notice of the witch's presence in the hallway, causing her to momentarily stop activating her trump card. "You're here! Are you here to play too?"

"…Go get 'er buddy!"

"So much for that warning Marisa-kun!"

"Mooouu~ you're no fun!" was she pouting? She was pouting! "I guess I'll just have to play with mister Naruto alone then, hmph!"

Her trump card activated.

" **Taboo: Four of a kind!"**

Out of nowhere, three identical copies of the girl appeared to join the original in the air. The four blonde lolis giggled as they each delivered their definition of fun to him. Apparently, each of them had different yet basically the similar meaning of fun.

Bullet hell.

Naruto could just waste time and dodge all incoming bullets his way, but he thought that it was only fair if he had his own fun too. After all, it wouldn't be fun if only one person gets to hog all of the fun, right? He stood in full height, completely ignoring the barrage of certain pain coming his way.

"Damn you fool, get out of the way!" it seemed that Patchouli and Alice arrived.

Just at the perfect moment.

"Fun, huh?"

A sigh came from behind the four identical quadruplets, who were in midair.

"Wish I could have that."

In one swift motion, three of the Flandres levitating were instantly beheaded, blood gushing out like fountain from the decapitated stump that were their necks. Being clones, they vanished before they could even hit the ground

"How did yo – GUWAAAH!"

He flicked the much smaller girl square on the forehead sending her a level below the floor they were currently at. But being a vampire, it did not hurt Flandre, not that much. In an instant, Flandre kicked off from the ground to level the levitating immortal once again, this time abandoning her danmaku.

"RAAAH!" All previous traces of adorable and mischief disappeared from the raging vampire's face. She lunged at Naruto with a flaming wand gripped in her right hand, raised and dedicated only to hurt him. "Lævateinn!"

Liquid golden, fiery flames consumed the entire hallway. The trio of magicians, being experienced in their own unique ways, managed to dodge. Everyone dodged, for the exception of two people. Flandre and Naruto. Flandre, because she's the one who's attacking and Naruto because…

Well, simply said, he didn't need to.

" **Fuuton: Reppu ."**

The giant seemingly pillar of demonic flame swung by Flandre pulverized everything. From the suit of metal armors lined up on the sidelines, the fancy purple and red decorations, the antiques, the wallpaper… everything. Everything, except one.

When the combustion of pure fiery explosion receded, the aftermath was shown. She saw the older blonde, floating, unscathed and bored. "How are you not hurt!?" Flandre demanded, her voice roared with such fury that not even the magicians knew she could even project. "What kind of trick are you using, magician?!"

Naruto allowed for one of his eyebrows to rise. "It seems like people have made the mistake of thinking that I am a magician a lot of times today." His look of brief interest morphed into dull boredom. "Well, kid, let me tell you what I told them; I'm not a magician, nor was I using magic this whole entire time." He then made a thoughtful look, albeit bored, but still thoughtful.

"Though if you wanted to know… I wouldn't mind explaining it to you."

Then Flandre was blasted away by an invisible force.

"With several demonstration, of course."

The loli with the flaming wand managed to catch herself after being forcefully shoved by the invisible force, she did not hesitate to summon more of the three identical clones to join the fight. Together, in unison, the quadruplets shouted, **"Forbidden Barrage: Starbow Break!"**

In the blink of an eye, the immortal was forced to try and dodge multicolored orbs headed his way. Key word was 'try', because he didn't. Somehow – or something – managed to negate every single bullet that came near him, before they could even touch his skin.

"Reppu, unlike most of the technique in my arsenal, is a defensive technique. It encases me in wind. Wind that _will_ protect me." he didn't blink when more of Flandre's bullets approached him, because he knew that he's untouchable. "It's not as powerful as the other defensive techniques, but it's enough to keep me safe from an attack of this level."

He raised his arm. "Now, let me show you one of my offensive techniques."

" **Raiton: Inazuma."**

Flandre, the original, was struck by sword made out of lighting. Lightning, not _electricity_. This could easily be distinguished by the smell of ozone quickly diffusing through the air. The sword struck the vampire right on the forehead, frying her skin to crisp, her flesh to coal, her blood to dry and her brain to mush.

It took no longer than a second until the wound, aftermath of the immortal's technique to heal completely due to Flandre's regenerative power. Seeing this, it did not surprise the immortal a little bit. He already got the feeling that she was a vampire the moment he laid eyes on her.

Hurt and having experienced being 'killed', the little sister of the devil gritted her deadly fangs. No one but her sister had ever hurt her as bad as this. To think that a man could do such damage to her… this deserved an equal return. Flandre's very form glowed an eerily crimson color, her features sharpened to show a much more animalistic side of her.

"Marisa, Alice! This is bad! The little sister's power is overflowing, this will result in an even bigger destruction that I doubt even Sakuya could fix!" Patchouli exclaimed, sweating.

"Thanks for saying the obvious, duh!" Marisa replied sarcastically, with fear. "But there's no way I'm gonna get caught in the middle of that! I'll die!"

"But we need to do something…" Alice murmured. Do not mistake her composure for calm, as she was shaking just as much as Marisa currently.

The trio's conversation was cut abruptly when an explosion went off. That was the sound of Flandre's wounded pride as a vampire being transformed into one powerful transformation.

" **Fear: Beserker's Halo!"**

Un-holy light began to envelope the entire scene, blinding nearly everyone. Naruto managed to shield his eyes from the blinding light and he saw what the light's purpose was for. Flandre did not look like a person anymore. What was floating before him was something that resembled Flandre. He could make out the short form, crystal wings and only those. He could not see her face, save for a pair of murderous red orbs that were her eyes. Just like he was encased with wind, she had a dark miasma covering her.

" **Human, bow before me."** even her voice did not sound like Flandre's anymore. It was something that he would hear coming out from Kurama's mouth.

"Yeaaah no thanks. Sorry, I bow to no one." The blonde immortal shook his head.

" **So be it."** A basketball sized red orb appeared on Flandre's palms, until it got smaller, compressed to the size of a marble. **"Crush: The Eye."**

She crushed the orb.

Aaand nothing happened.

 **"…WHAT?!"** a fear stricken scream came out from Flandre's mouth.

Naruto merely gave her one pitying look. "Kid, you _can't_ crush me." he waved his hands towards her. "Now, my turn."

 **"Beam Rasengan."**

* * *

The shaking of foundation caused her to open one of her eyes, showing the world that scarlet was indeed a different shade of red.

Beside her, a well-dressed an elegant looking young woman stood silently without opening her eyes, knowing full well that a maid will only speak once her mistress commanded her to. Her mistress, the owner of this mansion, had been resting on her throne ever since she sensed the three presence of their guests entering the mansion, but her mistress had just woke up; despite with all the commotion happening about within the mansion.

The mistress's youthful face, despite how beautiful and untainted it was, still was not enough to stop a small frown from forming. Her short light blue hair was flicked backwards by their owner, as a result from the rising irritation she was beginning to feel. The sound of explosion that shook her estate only increased her growing irritation further.

Needless to say, it didn't take long until she decided to do something about it.

"Sakuya." The youthful mistress zoned out rather lazily. "It's time to stop whoever's disturbing my nap, isn't it?"

"Mistress?" the maid returned her mistress's calling. "That could be done in no time."

"Hm." After a brief moment of silence, the mistress slowly stood from her throne, showing that she was very much shorter than a maid. But do not let appearances fool you. Remilia Scarlet, the infamous Scarlet Devil, was anything if not deadly. "I change my mind. I want to see this person personally."

Remilia was a scarlet eyed vampire, wearing a light-pink mob cap with a red ribbon decorated with white stripes. She wears a light-pink dress with a red ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes and a necklace featuring a Caduceus-like centerpiece. She also has a pair of large black bat-like wings on her back with a wingspan wider than her height. She looked like a vampire because she was a vampire, the original.

"Let us go, Sakuya."

Wordlessly, the maid disappeared.

* * *

 **"GWAAAH!"**

Naruto got tired of flying and trying to keep up with the rampaging vampire, but that didn't mean that he's tired of fighting. To be perfectly honest to those who were watching, this was just him getting rid of hundreds of years' worth of rust from his system. He was trying to make his chakra circulate more effectively, permanently removing it from its slow and sub-dormant stage.

Flandre never got tired of trying to attack him physically.

"Give up kid, your fun ends here." He said albeit lamely as he rubbed the back of his neck.

" **Only I get to decide when I want my fun to end, human."** Flandre hissed back, shooting magenta colored orbs towards his direction once again.

He refrained himself from sighing, as it would only aggravate the vampire even more.

" **Doton: Ishigaki."**

A large wall structure erupted from the ground, shielding the immortal from the incoming hazardous orb of doom. Let him correct what he just said. He'd been doing nothing but exercising himself and entertaining the girl. This was beginning to get boring even for him.

" **Suiton: Suiryu."**

Twin dragon made out from the water particles in the air roared and crashed upon Flandre, drenching her from head to toe.

" **Raiton: Kaminari."**

Flandre let out a muted scream when she felt the power of electricity being doubled of what it was worth due to her drenched state.

" **Fuuton: Kaze no Mai."**

Invisible wind blades began to cut the surface of Flandre's skin, despite how tough a vampire's skin was.

" **Katon: Homura."**

And to finish it off, a torrent of blazing fire surged towards the falling vampire, enveloping her in hell's embrace before consuming her to dust.

Flandre's regeneration kicked in the moment her ashes hit the ground. But this time, she made no effort of fighting back. No, she could not fight back. Not anymore. The aftermath of having to be forced constantly regenerate had finally taken its toll on her body, now, she's as helpless as a wounded bat.

 **Play Thomas Bergersen – Illusion**

"How does it feel? Being forced to the ground by this human? Hmm?"

He was done with her body, now he's playing with her mind.

" _It hurts doesn't it? The pain, the feeling of your skin being burnt to crisps and your flesh cooked to nothing but charcoal? Maybe not so much, you are a vampire after all."_

"SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Flandre lashed out from her pained state, causing shockwaves with every scream.

" _Ahaha, the vampire has fallen. Hey, there are such things as a 'fallen' angel, right?"_

His voice was close, really close.

" _How about a fallen vampire?"_

Flandre struck at nothing but air, the sound of his giggling ringing loud and clear in her ears.

" _How does it feel to not be able to see in darkness? Darkness, your element. It makes you weak, doesn't it?"_

The little sister of the devil yelped in anguish when she felt a harsh blow to the center of her body, sending her crashing somewhere. She blanked out, not regaining vision.

" _There is an old saying that goes like this: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown."…"_

She felt her spine breaking, but only felt pain. She did not die, thus explaining why she did not regenerate. She just felt pain.

" _I say bullshit."_ The voice giggled, echoing within the darkness. _"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is, in fact, hate, and the oldest and strongest kind of hate is the hate a weakling have towards the strong."_

With a harsh blow to the face, Flandre was thrown back to reality, allowing for her to regain consciousness.

He was there, face inches away from the little sister's face, blue eyes fixed only to Flandre's red eyes. He had a kind smile on his face, one that everyone felt was natural on him.

"Now, any questions?"

…

Surprisingly, there was. "Why… why won't you break?" the soft spoken voice of a child-like vampire questioned him as if she was talking to the creator of the universe himself.

Naruto's smile became mellower. "Kid, you can't break something that's already broken in the first place." Then, he dropped an open palm on the crown of the girl's head. "Have enough fun?"

Unsurprisingly, the little vampire nodded.

"Good; that takes care of things then."

The man backed away from the fallen vampire, taking his leisure time of fixing his crooked attire. Despite all the fighting he had done, the only damage that was done to him only happened in the form of disheveled clothing. He readjusted his collar, straightened his tie and fixing his coat into their place; feeling comfortable once more. He then walked away, about several meters from where he was to pick up his fallen briefcase. After picking it up, he walked back to Flandre.

Looking down to the much shorter vampire, he offered her a hand as well as kind smile. "Stand?"

Flandre accepted the gesture wordlessly, feeling the warmth of his hand on hers. Wordlessly, the due of immortal and vampire walked over to the crowd of five people – two new people who happened to be Remilia and Sakuya – like a father holding his small daughter by her hand. One who noticed that shudder at the thought. To everyone's mild amusement, confusion, he handed Flandre's hand to the light blue haired girl with two vampiric wings on her back.

"Your sister?" he inquired, flatly.

"Yes." Remilia accepted her little sister's hand.

Naruto nodded, before he opened his briefcase to showcase what's inside. He showed them.

"HOLY CRAP!"

"T – That much gold…"

"…" Alice was silent for whatever reason.

Remilia took at least ten seconds of worth of glance at the briefcase stocked to the brim with gold. "What is this?" she asked, humorlessly.

"Reimbursement." Naruto sighed out tiredly. He nudged his head towards the destructed background landscape. "I also have local money if you want them."

"I'll… take the gold."

Naruto handed the entire gold inside of his briefcase to the maid who was strangely familiar for whatever reason… "Ah, it's you."

Sakuya briefly nodded, acknowledging his recognition of her with nothing more than a nod.

After handing out the entirety of gold he had with him, he closed his briefcase. Nodding, he return to attend to the little sister, kneeling on one leg with his briefcase placed somewhere near him. Everyone, and I meant everyone, went wide eyed when they saw the blonde man bringing out a handkerchief from his coat's inner pocket and proceeded to wipe the smudges or whatever stain the blonde immortal could see on the younger vampire's face and clothing. He seemed to be unconscious of what he was doing as he properly tucked in Flandre's disarranged shirt into her skirt with a flat expression on.

"Try not to get into too much fun now would you? Grampa's old back is not as strong as it was in his younger days…" he said in a trance like manner, as if he was zoning out.

Despite the mumbling of words, Flandre nodded.

"Does he even know what he's doing right now…?" Alice whispered out hauntingly as she observed the whiskered blonde pulling out a rainbow colored lollipop before handing it to the younger vampire.

"I… I…" Patchouli was at lost for words.

"…" Marisa could not speak, because her lower jaw had hit the floor for about five minutes now.

The trio of magicians watched with their respective expression as the man walked towards them with his briefcase hung behind his shoulder. "Well, is there anywhere else you want me to visit, Marisa-kun?"

* * *

When the morning sun touched his eyes, he yawned and woke up while stretching both of his arms apart to the sides. After embracing the presence of morning, he jumped out from his bed and on to the floor. This was his third day in Gensokyo and nothing, apart from the shenanigans that happened yesterday, bothered him that much.

He did a daily routine of grooming, selecting which suit was the best to go with today-

' _Holy fuck Naruto, they're the same thing.'_

-and eating breakfast on his newly built kitchen table. He's having instant ramen for breakfast, he had several on stock but considering his diet, he will need to stock some more soon. He chowed the instant food composed of synthetic fat and sodium in an instant, throwing the foam cup to a nearby wooden trashcan which was like on the corner of the kitchen.

He polished his shoes with black polish and finally left his home which was located conveniently in the middle of the Forest of Magic. He's dripping with sarcasm today… that might not be a good thing.

"Huh… I need a haircut." Noticeably, his hair was already at their shaggy and uncontainable volume. He had a reason why his hair was shorter ever since the war ended, and it may or may not have involved Hinata, but it also made his head feel less heavier. He frowned, and that frown was reflected easily on the handheld mirror he was holding. Discarding the mirror to his coat's pocket, he then walked towards the door of his house.

And he pushed the door open.

"Ah."

"Oh."

For once, the shrine maiden felt awkward. The red-white shrine maiden cleared her throat, before speaking, "You going somewhere?"

"Yeah, the village." Naruto told her, eyes still staring. "No, forget about that, how did you even know where I live?"

"Marisa told me." her answer was just as easy as everything she did in life.

" _How_ did she know where I live?"

Reimu shrugged, before continuing. "And unfortunately, you can't leave just yet, I'll need to confirm a few things." She saw his questioning look linger. "About yesterday."

And the realization began to seep into his mind. "Oh… okay, I don't mind. Please come in Reimu sit wherever you want and wait, I'll get the tea ready."

As he allowed the shrine maiden entrance to his humble abode, Reimu was already inspecting the building as if it was a museum. She was amazed at how well built the place was, it retained that oriental and traditional structure and atmosphere, but had an aura of modern convenience floating about.

"Nice place you got here, did it just pop right out the ground?"

"Yeah."

"…You do realize that I was asking for the truth, right?"

Naruto, who was picking out his jar of tea leaves from his cupboard, rolled his eyes as well as snorting in amusement. "Unfortunately, I said the truth." He spawned a thermos filled with hot water that appeared just on the counter behind him. "Do you want any sugar in your tea?"

Reimu was instantly offended. "Urggh… no, why would you suggest that, man?"

Naruto chuckled amusingly. "Man… they always give the same damn answer. I was just kidding, I take my tea without sugar too." after about three or four minutes of brewing his tea, he brought it up to the front on a wooden tray. "Here you go."

"Yosh… thanks, thanks." Reimu took the refreshments with delight. After slowly and carefully blowing the surface of the tea to cool it down, she brought the ceramic mug to her lips. "Mwaah… warm tea is the best…"

Naruto thought that Reimu sounded like an old lady there.

"So, what do you want to ask me?"

"Oh yeah." The shrine maiden remembered of her being here as she sets her mug down on the table. "Marisa told me yesterday that you got into a scuffle with the little sister at the mansion."

A snort from the blonde. "Scuffle would be the incorrect term. It was for fun, so, it's just a pure game of I'll-beat-the-shit-out-of-you-until-you-bleed. Though for you information, it did not ended like that."

"How did it ended, exactly?" It seemed that their mutual witch friend was not very good in summarizing stories…

Naruto's eyes twinkled, his lips tugged to form a snarky grin. "Even the devil needs money, Reimu."

"…You magnificent bastard…"

"I couldn't agree more." The blonde nodded sophisticatedly. "That's about how it went the other day, is there anything else you wanted to know?"

Reimu took her time to enjoy her tea. "It's probably useless of me to ask you… but Marisa did mention some pretty interesting things yesterday and all of them involved how you stomping the curb with the little sister."

"Hm… are you suspicious of me?"

For once, summer was cold.

Reimu was unaffected with the man's sweetly cynical look. "No, but should I?"

Naruto shook his head instantly. "No, you shouldn't… but I'll admit this: the folks at the human village were an interesting bunch, way much more than the tengu people on their mountains."

Reimu was clumsy enough to let her surprise show. "You infiltrated the Yokai Mountain?" there was barely hiding the astonishment in her voice.

"How rude." It was his turn to look offended. "- I'd like to think of it as… _researching_ around for future reminders."

"Reminders for what, exactly?" Naruto did not fail to notice the slight narrowing of her eyes.

"For something that is clearly none of your damn business." His words came out as calmly as one might find a Buddhist monk say.

"…You do know that I can use my authority as the peacekeeper of Gensokyo to force the words right out of your mouth, right?"

The reply to her answer was a hearty chortle of laughter, one that came to be from having heard or seen something funny and amusing. Reimu did not know why, but her vision went narrow and narrower. She could not dismiss the creeping shadows that were obscuring her vision, thus allowing herself to be temporarily blinded by darkness. Reimu remained calm and composed, as expected from the Hakurei shrine maiden, capable of remaining level headed despite having illusions playing with her mind.

"You can." His voice was a whisper, came echoing from several different directions of the house that Reimu could not pinpoint.

" **But** _ **can**_ **you?"**

Despite the urge to swallow the growing lump on her throat, the shrine maiden steeled herself to be as her usual stoic demeanor. "I can try."

The blindness remained on her eyes for about four more seconds, until they regain their vision once again.

"Aw, you're no fun Reimu." Naruto pouted. "You're way worse than a friend I know."

'… _Was that supposed to make me happy, dobe?'_

The shrine maiden shrugged carefreely, uncaring of what had just happened. "Hm, let me meet this friend of yours, and then I'll be the judge of that myself."

'… _I don't like her.'_

Naruto snickered to himself, for whatever reason that Reimu could not understand. "But there's no need to worry Reimu, I'll keep my snooping below the line."

"Aha, so you admitted that it was snooping."

"I admit nothing, I just merely used the term synonymous to the one I was going to use." He went thinking mode. "What is it… ah, it's research." His flat face returned, causing Reimu to smirk slightly.

After finishing her tea, Reimu allowed herself to stand. "I guess I've taken much of your time. I'll be leaving now and, uh, Marisa and Alice might just visit you any time today, just a heads up."

Naruto sipped one last time from his cup. "Then I'll make sure to _not_ be at home when they do visit."

Reimu snorted.

* * *

"Ah… the human village…" he breathed in fresh air into his lungs, before eventually releasing them again.

' _What a generic sounding name… can we go and complain about that?'_

"No, we can't."

' _Sucks. So, what are we doing here? I doubt that you're here for one of your leisure morning walks.'_

The blonde chuckled as he navigated the streets of the village. "That involves ten percent of what I'm going to do. The remaining eighty percent will be me, putting my money in lady luck, and let her make my long and miserable life more entertaining."

'… _But I thought you don't believe in Lady Luck?'_

"That's her sister fate you dumb Uchiha… don't mistake one for the other."

His seemingly-to-other's-perspective-as-a-rambling-of-a-crazy-man was disturbed when a walking passerby decided to interrupt his inner talk.

Keine entered his field of vision. And for a brief moment, his bored look blanched.

She's still wearing that weird hat like thingy…

"Ah, good morning Naruto-san." The teacher who was also the protector of the Human Village greeted the walking blonde. "Staying safe, I hope?"

He gave her one of his wry smiles. "As safe as the day I was born." Hah, sarcasm right there. "How about you, doing well, Miss Kamishirasawa?"

Keine glared a little bit. "I told you to call me Keine, my full name is quite a mouthful to pronounce."

His stiff but joking nod was accompanied by some good natured laughing. "Trust me, I've heard people with incredibly long names out there…" he trailed off.

"Ah, how have your stay in Gensokyo fair? The locals are treating you right, I hope?" that's the second time she ended her statement with 'I hope'.

"Well, it takes time getting used to how… lively people are in here." He joked. "But I don't mind, need to move these old bones around after all."

Somehow, Keine did not doubt him. "Anyway, what are you doing today?"

Keine saw his face morphing into that of confusion, then she saw the tugging of his lips, transforming his expression entirely. "My word Miss Keine, it seems that you're asking a lot of questions from me." he winked at her. "Interested in this old man?"

She did not know why, but her cheeks actually flared up at his teasing. "N – No, not in particular." In an attempt to hide her embarrassment, she turned the direction she was facing away from him. "But I must say that it is rare to encounter an outsider these days."

At hearing that, his smirk slowly faded into a small and contained smile. "Reimu mentioned that too. Still, just how rare people like me are?" he asked.

"This time of the year, surprisingly rare." Keine half commented half confessed. "Not that it's a bad thing or anything, in fact, it reassures me that a certain gap yokai was not conducting one of her suspicious shenanigans."

Gap Yokai…? Now that's something he hadn't heard anyone mentioning around.

"I see… but back to your earlier question," his teasing smile returned. "I'm just spending the rest of the day exploring several places in the village that I didn't have time to explore around yet. And maybe visit Reimu and Marisa-kun on the shrine."

At him mentioning about visiting Reimu's shrine, Keine frowned. "I still don't think that it's safe for an outsider to go out without anyone escorting him."

"I told you this ten times the same night you dragged me into the registration office; I'm capable of handling myself." and others. "I'm not a stranger to fighting."

Keine decided not to question on that.

"But at the moment, I am free." He said. "Would you like to join me for tea?"

Caught by surprise at the sudden offer, Keine actually stumbled back a little.

His kind demeanor transformed into that of concerned. "Oh, are you busy?"

"What? No – No, I'm not. I'm on break from teaching. It's holiday today, so… um…" not knowing what to do anymore, she bowed her head slightly, still managed to keep that hat of hers from falling. "I would appreciate in having tea with you."

"Um, good to know." He then looked around. "Anywhere you'd recommend? I'm not a local, you see…"

"Ah, er, of course. Yes." Keine recomposed herself by readjusting her hat by positioning it straight on her head. "I know a few recommendable places, would you like to visit?"

"Sure, why not?"

They were enjoying chatting and walking as if they were colleagues.

Until something happened.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I knew that I said that this chapter will be up later since this was longer than the previous ones (it's about 2K more words), but I will be having a New Years trip in about… four hours, and that's like seven in the morning. Yes, I finished this at approximately three o'clock in the morning. The things I do for you loyal readers… anyway, let me get to the promised explanations I mentioned on the AN above.**

 **Number one: Custom Spells – Notice how I did not call them 'custom spell CARDS'. Because, they are not. The spell card system that exists in canon involves the rule of using 'non-lethal' methods in order to defeat someone. Seeing as how we have an immortal with a very high power level, thank you for reviewer Culaio for telling me that, having a non-lethal battle with him would be totally unfair now, wouldn't it. There are two ways I could deal with this. The first one is to have every single character in Touhou their personal set of lethal attacks. Or two, having Naruto to use the spell card system as his primary countermeasure to attacks. If I choose the first one, it will mean that battle scenes will be bloodier, more brutal and even gore. Alternatively, should I choose the second one, battle scenes will be more lengthy, but less flashy powers from our immortal blonde.**

 **Number two: Character's Personality – The profile on Flandre's page at the Touhou wiki mentioned of her not being as easy to anger as fanon makes her to be. But I just did that. Look, I can always stick to the lore, but it wouldn't hurt to actually branch out outside of the road don't you think? As for our immortal blonde himself… I know that his personality may seem inconsistent to you; how he's all bored one moment and kind another moment and completely acts like a stoic douche when one's not expecting… but all I can say is this. This is all a part of the story. I won't spoil anymore, because it will ruin the story itself.**

 **Number three: Power Levels – I mentioned several interesting snippets that have happened in Naruto's life prior to the story, like, facing up against a pantheon of cosmic gods and all that. Again, that's plot material and is intended to be used as a resource. Also, I wonder if I should stick to more non-technique fight scenes, which means that fight scenes will mostly involve physical actions instead of a simple cast of magic. But knowing me, I'll probably find a way to mix the both of them in eventually.**

 **Number four: Romance – Now this is the dreaded topic that I'm not so keen on touching. I know that some of you, reviewers or not, are already starting on questioning what the pairings might be. But let me tell you what I wrote on the previous chapters; I don't know whether or not this story will even have a pairing in the first place. Naruto, being an immortal who has lived longer than your essay on quantum theory, is different from canon Naruto. He's desensitized to practically everything, because he has seen it all. All the fucked up kind of shit that mankind has managed to shit out from their asses.**

 **Anyway there goes for this chapter, and as always, reviews are highly appreciated.**


	6. Foreign Invasion

**So I actually got a lot of good reviews from the previous chapter, and I'm happy about that. Quality over quantity yo! Anyway, I'd also like to address those who compared my story to Kur0Kishi, an author in FF. The thing is guys…**

 **I don't know who Kur0Kishi is. Until you guys mentioned it, of course. So, I did a little bit of research and saw that a guest reviewer by the name of Loggin In who wrote to me telling that he/she saw similarities from one particular story that said author wrote.**

 **Eventually, I read End Game Version R.**

 **And then I was laughing and went 'Oh my God I just ripped off another person's story without knowing about it!' Does that counts as an achievement? If so, then feel free to award me. In the end, I got really hooked into Kur0Kishi's work and I'm currently reading his and hers other stories. So, thanks for unintentionally recommending me a good author, guys.**

 **Just like the previous chapter, this one will have soundtracks that I personally think will fit the scenes. Please, check them out.**

 **With that said, I'm pleased to announce that this chapter will be starting.**

* * *

"K – Keine-sensei!" a young boy, no older than the age of twelve, ran towards the pair of teacher and outsider; looking as if he'd run marathons from the village's gate to here.

"S – Seiji-kun?" Keine was surprised to see the young boy running towards her direction; the emergency alarms in her head went off when she saw how out-of-breath he was. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"S – Sensei…!" the boy breathed in one last time to catch his breathing. "You gotta go outside, the supply caravans are being attacked by fairies!"

Seiji is no ordinary kid. He is a human kid, but his job was what made him different from the rest of the kids who attended her school. As a way to promote independence, the village's leaders allowed the hiring of children to help with keeping the village's safety measured and constant. Most of the jobs available were being assistant scouts, runners and even cleaners for the older and more experienced guards. Seiji here was the second, he's a runner. A runner's job was to help the older scout and relay whatever message that the scout had for the people in the village, as simple as that.

"Attacked? Fairies?" Keine uttered, unable to comprehend the words. "Why would fairies attack our caravans?"

"I – I don't know! You gotta believe me, sensei! I've told the guards on the gates who're on duty, they left the moment I told them of the situation and they told me to tell you too!" there's nothing but urgency in the boy's tone.

Surely, this was not a case of 'the boy who cried wolf'. Naruto watched the exchange with eagle like eyes. He's observing the boy, picking out whatever signs of lying he could see the boy was making, and he found none. Of course, he couldn't just tell Keine that he knew that the boy wasn't lying; she'll sniff him for that.

But thankfully, it seemed that Keine's paranoia did her good. "Very well Seiji-kun, you tell the chief guard in the barracks, I'll deal with the scene myself." the boy, after receiving his order, hurriedly ran off to fulfill it. Keine turned towards the blonde suited man, giving him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Naruto-san, it seemed that something came up. Can we reschedule?"

He gave her an understanding look. "Sure, I'll see you soon."

Keine flashed him a smile of gratitude before lifting off to the sky.

' _Hm, still not used to see women flying all of a sudden.'_

"You and me both, bastard… you and me both." Naruto whispered inwardly. He lifted his right leg, changing the direction of where he was facing before.

' _You going to follow and see what's happening?'_

Naruto pursed his lips. "Can't say I don't like the idea of that… on second thought, I need to know what's happening." He decided.

' _Alright, go for it.'_

The blonde suited man walked off towards the side of the streets, slipping past the crowds like an excellent inconspicuous person straight for the alleys. Without a single sound, he walked through the alley and as he walked, the space and area around him distorted; creating a disturbance in the time-flow continuum. Slowly, the scenery around him began to break like glass, this allowed for him to wrap almost instantly to whatever shard he wished.

This method of transportation was what he called **Warp**. It was a skill that took him ages to perform, much less complete. The concept of **Warp** was simple; it allowed the user to alter reality, time and space altogether to be used in whatever manner he so desired of it. Currently, he's only able to use it for transport; to get to one place to another. The difference between this and his dad's **Hiraishin** were obvious – though the purpose was similar – this required no seals or tags to be used beforehand. Sasuke helped him perfect this technique, saying that it was similar to **Kamui** in a glance.

But unlike **Kamui** and **Hiraishin** , **Warp** bends reality completely; whilst the two former merely bends time and space. When using **Warp** , he experienced walking through a hallway of emptiness with broken glass shards floating around him. These 'shards' are what he called Warp Points. He could enter them and simply end up at wherever's the Warp Point was, thus making the technique more complicated and dynamic when compared to **Kamui** and **Hiraishin**.

And just like any other high caliber techniques he owned, this was chakra consuming, but he needed to be where the caravans were before Keine got there; so it seemed like a fair trade. After several minutes of walking, he saw a floating shard, showing him the image of a narrow woodland dirt path filled with carts and people pulling them. Currently, what was reflected on the shard showed the gravity of the situation. He could make up little girls dressed in frilly and colorful costumes, shooting danmakus and causing terror to the caravans. Seemed like help had yet to arrive.

What's really irking him was that he couldn't figure out a way to make the scene play before him, it's something that he hadn't been able to do. He's only able to see what was happening in the form of a picture, not a movie.

He could do two things here; to observe or act. Obviously, he's choosing the first one. Because if he were to act, that would put him under unnecessary attention with the humans and Keine herself. Regardless of what he chose, he will still need to be there to see how things play out.

Slowly, he reached for the shard he was observing for the past few minutes and when he got it, the pieces came together, fixing reality back to its whole state.

* * *

 **Meanwhile…**

Keine's main objective was to confirm the situation given to her by Seiji. It's not normal for a caravan to be attacked by fairies, sure, they tend to be a mischievous bunch but even stupid fairies would know better to attack a convoy of caravans guarded by armed humans. Unless if it's a certain ice fairy. But in any case, as the protector of the Human Village and the people in it, it was her duty to investigate.

As she flew, the growing coldness of her sweat grew colder.

She hoped that this situation will get under control quick, they won't need an incident happening with the fairies, again.

After minutes of flying, she finally saw a familiar route. The route she was talking about was the one used by the supply caravans whenever they'd transport materials from the village to the other smaller settlements outside of the village. Keine decreased her altitude, planning to land so that she could investigate.

As she lowered her altitude, she could hear the familiar sound of danmaku being played out from within the forest. Changing course, she flew back up and zoomed towards wherever she heard the noise came from.

"Hata! You and your men protect the supplies, me and mine will deal with those fairies!" a burly, bear of a man who appeared to be in his middle ages shouted as he and his people suffered the uncoordinated onslaught of the fairies.

"Roger that boss!" Hata, a younger man in his late twenties, unslung the bow from his shoulders as he began to form a solid defense through ordering his men. "Shoot these bastards down, we can't let them destroy the supplies!"

The leader of the caravan cursed as he dragged one of his wounded men to the back of a caravan. "Stay with me Kei!" danmaku could never kill, but Kei was unlucky enough to have been stabbed by a large branch that fell on him right through his thigh due to the result of stray danmaku bullets from the fairies.

The sound of wood being destroyed into nothing more than splinters indicated that the fairies' attacks were becoming more and more restless. They were suddenly attacked by a swarm of these creatures in the middle of their return journey from distributing supplies to the settlements further from the village, with leftover supplies, he thought that it's best to return to the village earlier than the appointed time.

"Boss! Keine-sama's here!"

Everyone cheered in relief when they heard the name of their protector arriving.

Keine landed in the middle of the battlezone, she scurried over to the leader who was helping treating his wounded workers along with some others on the back of a destroyed caravan.

"Akira-san! What happened here?!" Keine shouted through the sound of danmaku battling happening in the background.

"Fairies!" the leader shouted back. "We're suddenly attacked on the way back to the village, you need to help us and kill those fuckers from damaging the caravans!"

Knowing what must be done, Keine took to the skies to start her job. She flew and when she went deeper into the danger zone, fairies already began picking up on her presence. Being fairies they were, Keine was only greeted with messy and unorganized pattern of danmaku shots. She easily dodged and countered with her own, shooting the fairies out of existence.

Keine sensed several more coming from the east, and that's where she should prioritize her defenses on because the archers are going to be overwhelmed if she did not do anything.

"Keine-sama! It's best if you flank them from behind, we'll deal with the ones in here!" one of the archers who was perched on a tree branch suggested to the flying woman.

Keine took the strategy in mind, changing her flight route to the tree lines beside her, she flanked the incoming swarm of fairies from their six and she used a particular spell card.

" **Ending Sign: Phantasmal Emperor!"**

Dazzling blue lights shot out like lasers. Keine's spell card mowed down on the unsuspecting fairies like a lawnmower on acid, and knowing just how fragile fairies were, it didn't take long for the entire swarm to be dispelled or killed. Panting, the teacher took a moment to regain her breathing.

"More fairies coming from the left!" a random person shouted.

And that's her cue to return back to action. However, unlike before, these are more coordinated attacks. Instead of just a swarm of fairies shooting down bullet hell upon her, they took up formations and turns. It did not give her a hard time, but she was getting more and more agitated. While the basic knowledge of being in a danmaku fight was to not let yourself be overwhelmed, Keine was in an entirely different spot here.

"Everyone clear the area! Get away from here!" Keine shouted. She could fight, but she could not fight _and_ protect the people who're scattered all over the forest at the same time.

The people's effort of escaping the area was halted when another mass of fairies decided to join in the fray. The normally composed teacher cursed. She pulled out another spell card, and she put all of her might into it. "Clear the way!" she shouted before summoning her trump card.

" **Future: Gods' Realm!"**

 **Nearby…**

' _What's happening out there, I sensed multiple life forms exploding.'_

Naruto did not answer the inner voice of his friend just yet, choosing to watch the brilliant and spectacular yet deadly light show first. He felt the wind hitting his face and fortunately, he was nowhere within the range of Keine's spell card. However, he was close enough to see the spectacle happening

"Just a very, very complex light show." The immortal answered. "Hm… I think I'm beginning to understand how this spell card system works." He drawled out. "While not lethal, it overwhelms the opponent by the sheer number of bullets or projectiles until their pain receptors goes haywire, leading to unconsciousness." He concluded with amusement. "It doesn't kill, but it hurts."

He then snorted.

"The one who suggested this method of fighting must be quite the sadist…"

The spectacular lightshow of danmaku and laser continued to resume, clearly that Keine was doing everything she could in order to get things under control.

' _And what's this about this whole fairy business? They have fairies here? Aren't those supposed to be fictions? I mean, even we have never met fairies. Elves, sure, but fairies? I thought only Disney owns them.'_

The immortal shook his head at the tasteless joke,"Apparently, from what I've read from the time in the library, fairies are common anomalies in Gensokyo. They're like the squirrels of nature."

'… _but aren't squirrels the squirrels of nature?'_

Naruto sighed. "In Gensokyo? I doubt it." The tree branch he was sitting on was getting quite uncomfortable. "Whoa." The blonde shielded his eyes from the amount of lasers he was seeing Keine producing. "Hm… her strategy of shoot-everything-that-isn't-human seems to be working, but let me help her." His lips twisted to a grin.

 **Play Ace Combat: Assault Horizon OST - Dogfight**

' _Sixty fairies approaching from your six.'_

Keine did not have time to register the voice speaking in her head, because her body reacted first to obliterate the incoming swarm of fairies coming in right behind her. Her bullets soar through the air, taking in much of the available space. Sixty versus one, and the sixty quickly became none. Keine dived out of harm's way when several of the now deceased fairies bullets rushed at her.

"What?! Who is this and how did you managed to speak inside of my head?!" the teacher-protector demanded.

' _Me? I'm just a voice in your head. Just do what I tell you to do, now, dodge left.'_

Keine was about to demand some more but her body got the best of her; she boosted left as the voice inside of her head instructed her. She noticed that if she didn't dodge, she would've been hit by a barrage of purple and blue danmaku pellets.

' _Three more rushing in directly from below, I advise dropping down to eliminate them.'_

Keine begrudgingly shuts off her flight capabilities, letting her fall. Gravity did its job of bringing her towards the three fairies approaching her way. As she free falls, she summoned another card, this time, she was sure to get them.

" **Future: Next History!"**

Whatever was left of the three fairies simply went disintegrated by countless red and blue pellets that rained down hell on every direction that was available. Keine watched as several other fairies were clumsy enough to get obliterated in her attack, she watched as the humans were forced to retreat due to how dangerous things have become.

' _Proceed to the west, stray fairies are heading towards the village.'_

That information made Keine reactivate her flight mode. She burst off in an impressive speed, impressive considering that even after all the shooting and moving she'd done, her hat was still fixed upon its place. She finally caught up to the fairies mentioned, and she easily mowed them down into nothing but fairy dust.

' _That takes care of the threat near the village; proceed back to the caravans, more fairies incoming.'_

It's suspicious, knowing that she had a voice speaking in her head, but the safety of the people was her top priority. If she's left with the only option of listening to the voice inside of her head in order for the people to be safe and this whole thing stopping, she'll do it.

As the number of fairies slowly diminishes under Keine's effort, the immortal blonde was already making his way back to the village. He walked, the destruction happening meters away behind him and deeper in the forest was ignored.

"There's only a hundred of them left, and it seems that they're going to put everything into their last attack." He took out a bottle of scotch from a rift in the air beside him.

"Don't greet them in the same manner, take it slow and pick them off one at a time."

His eyes glint as he flicked the cap open.

"On second thought, fuck 'em up."

He stopped and downed the whole bottle of scotch.

The red and blue lasers lightshow happening behind him could be seen all the way from the Human Village, telling yokais who caught sight of the battle just how strong the village's protector is.

* * *

"This could not be happening! This can't be happening!" One particular Kirisame Marisa was not having a good day.

"It's happening right before us! You'll have to accept it!" Alice too was not having a good day.

After the whole ordeal with the folks at the mansion the other day, they knew that an incident was bound to happen. It's just a thought, but if two powerful beings were to fight against one another, it will probably result in an incident or disaster. That's not the case… you say, but it is now. The fairies of Gensokyo have gone nuts, again. This was not the first time and, hopefully, it will be the last.

"Why did we visit that man's place in the first place?" Alice shouted as they both flew in the air. "If we were indoors when this happened…"

"Just shut up and start flying ze!"

Currently, they were being chased by hordes of flying fairies behind them. And being fairies who're native of Gensokyo, they were also shooting them with countless danmaku bullets. Naturally, Alice and Marisa dodged them with ease, but the sheer number of fairies after them was just unfair, even for Marisa. But that's not what worried them, what worried them was how restless and relentless the fairies after them were. Normally, these easy to kill, toga wearing farts of nature were not as violent as now. They're mischievous little buggers, sure, but not violent, at least.

"Listen here, when I get to Reimu's, we're marking this as an incident a.s.a.p." Marisa uttered out while constantly firing her mini-hakkero ala drive by towards the pursuing fairies.

"You'll have my stamp for it…" Alice, who had summoned several dolls, commented. Those dolls of her then helped Marisa in dispersing the mass of fairies that were after them, chipping their numbers to a few.

The two magicians had visited Naruto's home before they were being chased by those fairies, but unfortunately, the man was not there when they arrived. Bummered out, they decided to visit Reimu's shrine instead and on the way, fairies started swarming them.

"If I get a penny for every fairy I shot…" Alice grumbled.

"Oi, oi, don't talk like that; only Reimu's allowed to say that."

"Now, you, don't let her hear that."

Since they were really far away from the shrine, it took longer to reach it, not to mention of the fairies they encountered along the way. But once they did reach the shrine, they did not hesitate to barge in.

"Reimu, shit just got re – whoa! What are you doing here?"

The person in question gave the witch a two fingered salute as well as a small smile. "Nice to see you, Marisa-kun," his eyes flashed for a brief moment, and his lips tugging slightly. "Alice-san." The whiskered immortal was sitting together on the table with Reimu, enjoying tea.

"Marisa, Alice." The shrine maiden acknowledged the two's presence. "What is it?"

Marisa opened her mouth, but it quickly shut close again. Then, it opened again. "Fairies are going mad; Alice and I were attacked on the way here, ze."

Reimu calmly set down her mug, before giving Marisa a straight look. "Fairies? Mad? Are you sure they weren't just going on another stupid war again?"

Alice shook her head, letting several strand of hair billow. "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like so. They were too relentless on their attacks, persistent too. Though uncoordinated, their intent for violence was clear and received."

Reimu switched her focus to Alice. She knew that both of these magicians were no liar, especially Alice. So, it seemed that there's indeed a trouble with the fairies of Gensokyo. Then, after several seconds of silence, she sighed. "Man… well, at least the days won't be as boring as usual."

Reimu slowly rose to her two feet, yawning a little bit. This was supposed to be her nap time, but those fairies just had to disrupt it. "Oi, Naruto, you mind watching the shrine for me?"

The blonde immortal shook his head. "I don't. It's not like I have anything to do, anyway."

"Then why don't you come with us and help!" Marisa started to flail her arms, as if trying to get his attention. "With your hax like powers, we'll be done in no time, everybody's happy."

Reimu nodded. "Great idea, why don't you help?"

Naruto opened a single eye and he proceeded to stare at everyone in the room with it. After a minute of silence and staring, the man sighed. "Fine, but can't say that I'll be doing it in the manner you folks do it here."

"You mean danmaku?" Marisa saw him nod. "Nah, don't worry about hurting these fairies. They're a part of nature, so they'll reappear several hours after you kill them; explains why we never have a shortage of fairies here."

"Oh, that's actually interesting." He couldn't believe that the books in the library didn't wrote about that. "So, what do you suppose we do, Reimu?"

"Hey, you're not asking me?" Marisa asked bitterly.

Naruto looked at her for a second, before looking at Reimu again. "What should we do?"

"Bastard."

Reimu rubbed her chin in an old man like manner. "Hm… I wouldn't worry about the human village, they got a protector of their own. But until we can confirm that this is indeed a whole scale disaster, I cannot officially dub this as an incident, which means that I can't do my job of peacekeeping."

"I suggest scouting several areas, confirming whether or not every fairy in Gensokyo is suffering from this whole madness induced state?" Alice suggested.

"Good idea." Reimu turned to Naruto. "Say, you wouldn't have something that could make our job easier, now could you?"

Naruto flashed her one of his old teacher's favorite eye smile. "I probably do, but even if I do have it, what makes you think I'll let you use it?"

Alice stepped forward, her boot stomping on the shrine's wooden floor. "Do you realize how critical this moment is? If we don't stop it quick, it will turn to worse! Fairies made up of nearly forty percent of Gensokyo's population, more of them are appearing every day. So if you would stop it with the secrets or God help me!"

Naruto slowly blinked. "But it won't be fun that way." That earned him three glares from three pair of eyes from three different people. The immortal raised his hands. "Okay, fine, fine. You guys are no fun…" In a millisecond, every hint of mischief disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a cold and calculative pair of orbs. "I can confirm that it is, in fact, an incident. I can sense a multitude of natural energy signature sprouting up like weeds in your grandma's garden from the forest, village and the mansion we went the other day."

"The fairy maids…" Marisa murmured. "Remilia will probably need help with that, then again, with the kind of guard dog she owned, I doubt that."

Naruto blinked owlishly, they didn't see a dog when they're in the mansion the other day. "Anyway, currently, Keine's doing her job as we are speaking; but I reckon that she's about done with the fairies near the human village. So, our best bet is to put priority in focusing on the forest areas." He finished.

"Aaaand you know this _how_?" Reimu asked.

Naruto blinked. "I just helped you woman, I'm not going to spill my beans just because the world is being overrun by fairies."

Marisa face palmed. "Just forget it Reimu, I get the feeling that he'll do something atrocious if you continue to ask him questions… well for now, Alice and I will check around the areas near the mountains. If we're lucky, we might just get some help by the tengu folks over there."

Reimu nodded, finding Marisa's reason to be true. "Then I'll go with mister secretive over here and search around this area. If you found whoever's causing this incident, feel free to kick his or her ass for me."

"And me," everyone looked at him weird. "This guy just made me reveal shit to you girls, and I hate that." He sipped from his mug, calmly.

Reimu shook her head. "Anyway, let's go," she saw the immortal, who was about to refill his mug with tea. "now."

"Tch."

* * *

Naruto watched, seated on a tree branch, as Reimu finished off the last batch of fairies from the area. "Oi Reimu, that's the last of them."

The red-white shrine maiden lowered her prayer stick as she sighed before hovering down to the man who was happily perched on the branch. "Must you look so satisfied when you see a girl doing all the tough work by herself?"

Naruto stared at her weird. "The last time I checked, no mere girl was capable of doing the kind of shit you just did." Then his face turned smug. "And you're no girl, because I won't just let a mere girl touch moreover read one of my books. Speaking of which…" he dragged off the last syllable of the word. "How was it?"

Naruto's grin increased when he saw a rare sight. Reimu could not hide the slight dusting of red on her cheeks, much less deny it. "S – Shut up you pervert." She huffed, letting out her frustrations.

"Hey, hey; I may be a pervert, but it's you who actually read it." The man raised his hands in a defensive manner. "Don't blame the author for writing such an awesome piece of fine literature."

Reimu gritted her teeth, then she sighed still with the redness present on her face. "Fine, I'll admit. Chapter one to five was great…" her voice got notably smaller, and the red hue on her face seemed to be spreading down her neck. "but from chapter six onwards… it… got a little bit too much."

Naruto chuckled shamelessly, looking amused. "Noted then."

"Hm, what do you mean?"

"You liked more softcore action right?" he saw her blush doubled. "Then I'll be sure to include that in my future works." Then he went into thinking mode. "Speaking of work… we're done here. I can't feel any more of the fairies' presence from around this area, but I'm still feeling several more signatures near the mountains where Alice and Marisa are in."

"Hm… let's go help them then." Reimu scratched her back with her prayer stick. "And if we're lucky, this incident will be solved in one day." Reimu was about to fly away, but she was stopped when the blonde grabbed her hand before she could fly. "What is it?"

Naruto did not let go of her hand, and he tapped her wrist. "We won't reach there fast enough." The way he spoke was serious. "Marisa and Alice are being overwhelmed, the amount of signatures I'm feeling are many. We'll use my way, and I'll need to hold your hand."

Reimu eyed the man weirdly, still unsure of what was he trying to do. "Oookaaay?"

The immortal rolled his eyes. "Just don't vomit."

Before Reimu could ask why, she felt light headed instantly. It's the common after effect of using Hiraishin, because being transported from one place to another via space-time ninjutsu distorts both time and space, causing a dynamic effect to the users. And before she even knew it, she was already dodging bullets.

"Whoa! Reimu, when the hell did you get here ze?!"

The shrine maiden did not answer her witch friend's question immediately as she was summoning her signature dual yin-yang orbs to eliminate every fairy threat in the area. "The bastard with his weird magic… don't talk to me, I'm feeling dizzy…"

Marisa joined her friend, sticking close to her mid battle. "Speaking of the man, where is he?"

"Over here!" they turned, while shooting, to the direction of the voice. They saw Naruto, lazing on a tree branch with one hand raised to gesture 'sup'.

"Come and help us you lazy bastard!"

Naruto gestured an 'ok'. "But you're doing fine, darling."

"Screw you!"

"When you're older!"

Aggravated by the older blonde's reply, Marisa channeled her frustration to fury and unleashed it upon every fairy she was seeing. Mini-hakkero was overheating, so she'll have to result with her spells for now.

"Where's Alice?"

Marisa did not look around, as she was busy exterminating fairies. "She saw several more heading for the village and she told me that she'll take care of them."

The duo of incident solvers continue to do their jobs of eliminating every fairy they saw, but of course, their numbers were just so great that this whole entire ordeal was being dragged out longer than necessary. "Oi fairies! What the hell is wrong with all of you?!" Marisa shouted, asking the fairies, hoping that they will answer her. But none did, and that was when Reimu noticed something.

"They're not responding, this might turn out to be something bigger than we thought." Reimu murmured, ending the lives of several fairies.

While the two were occupied with their job of fairy extermination, they failed to notice the hovering immortal who was going towards them. "Reimu, Marisa-kun!"

Both girls turned to him simultaneously. "What?!"

He pointed his finger upwards, towards the sky.

And instantly, whatever fighting that the two girls were doing stopped abruptly.

"Oh my God…" Marisa could not let her voice out to anything but a whisper. Her eyes were wide, and she nearly fell from her broom.

 **Play Horizon in the middle of nowhere OST - Taisetsu na Mono wo Ute**

Reimu lacked the vocal comment that her friend just did, but she was nonetheless surprised at what she was seeing. She knew that there had been some ridiculous incidents that happened in Gensokyo, but that… that takes the cake.

Floating just above Gensokyo was a giant floating ship made out of metal. The sheer size of it instantly covered the forest area they were in, in a large and looming shadow of seemingly instant doom. The giant ship was definitely moving, and when it moved, it caused the wind to move along with it. Reimu, Marisa and even Naruto immediately retreated back to safety and safety being whatever space that was not loomed over by the ship's shadow. Seeing that the sheer size of the floating ship rendered whatever effort they made of escaping useless, Naruto grabbed the two girls at the same time, before transporting to somewhere safe.

Now at a safe spot, Naruto had teleported them to a safe location somewhere near the forest that surrounded his house. He let the two girls off form his hold, dropping them to the forest's floor.

"Oof! What the hell was that?!" Marisa seemed to have her priorities straight; she demanded the knowledge of the flying anomaly first before the reason why the immortal just dropped them to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"I don't know for sure… but it's bad, and this just got from bad, to worse." Reimu muttered, with the help of Naruto, she was back on her two feet. Reimu turned to the immortal, obviously being sarcastic. "I don't suppose you know what that is?"

"I do."

Okay, her sarcasm was gone.

Seeing that both Reimu and Marisa were demanding an explanation, Naruto took his time to fiddle with the locks of his briefcase.

"That was an alien spaceship." He opened his briefcase and began to reach inside of it, seemingly impossible to do due to the little space the storage item provided, but he managed to stick his whole hand into it. "And I was sure that I destroyed it seventy years ago in space."

"Then what the hell is it doing here?!" Marisa demanded bluntly with a loud voice.

Naruto did not answer her at first, it seemed that he had found what he was looking for from his briefcase. "I know the owner of that ship. He's a very strong dude, could probably destroy this whole place easily as I could. Oh, and there's a ninety percent chance that he's the one who's causing all the fairies to become awry." He saw the two girls gape at how casually he just revealed that information. "And as to why he's here… let's just say that I might be the cause of that."

He took out the pair of leather black gloves, using his mouth to hold it while he closed his briefcase. He began putting the gloves on and, obviously, they fit on him. He gave both Reimu and Marisa a tired but serious stare. "I'll handle this, just tell every single resident of Gensokyo who lives above ground to hide and find a very strong shelter; they might as well retreat underground." He was not joking.

"What will you be doing?" Reimu asked.

"The owner of that spaceship belongs to a super alien race that could easily conquer the entire planets alone. That guy traveled through countless universes just so that he could rule over them; that spaceship of his houses millions if not billions of his minions." Reimu's and Marisa's stomach sunk when they hear the information. "Me? I'm going to let myself into their spaceship, persuade them to leave and hopefully… we'll be able to have tea and cookies together afterwards."

"…and if you can't?" Marisa didn't know why, but she asked this particular question. Thus explaining her coarse voice.

A ghostly, faint but chill creating smile appeared on the man's face. "Let's just say that they won't be pulling any more of their conquest in the near future. Or at all, for that matter." His chuckles sent ghost-like shudder down the girls' spines.

"But I don't understand…" Reimu whispered tiredly, ready to faint. "This place is supposed to be guarded by the barrier, how on earth did that thing manage to fit inside here?" to be sure that she wasn't dreaming, she looked up to the sky to see the giant floating spaceship still present.

"I don't know." Naruto uttered softly. "Hm... Reimu, think you could do me one huge favor?" he asked the shrine maiden with a gentle tone.

"What is it?"

"Think you could undo the barrier for me?"

Reimu didn't bother asking why, she just knew that if she didn't undo the barrier, it'll hinder the man's plan of stopping whatever's inside of the spaceship. So, she only gave him a tired nod.

"Good. When you see a lot of explosions, that's your cue." He winked.

He handed his briefcase over to Marisa, gently placing it into her grasp.

"Keep that safe, I'm going to need both of my hands for this one." His eyes flashed. "And remember; tell everyone to find shelter. Cus' I'm not really sure if I could keep 'collateral damage' to a minimum."

Like a reverse meteorite, he dashed upwards to the sky, covered in flames and light. The two girls watched with covered eyes as the orange and red haze that was Naruto flew towards the direction of the ship. The ship was closer now, so they could hear the moment Naruto crashed into it. It caused a huge shockwave that resonated more than a kilometer from where the spaceship was positioned, but still the two girls did not move. Their normally easy going mind could not comprehend the certain danger that could happen to Gensokyo.

"R – Reimu… I'm scared, ze…" Marisa muttered, her voice strangely small.

Reimu, for once, could agree. But she did not say anything. "Let's just warn the others. You go to the mountains and warn the tengu folks, I'll have to return to the shrine immediately, but I'll go and inform Keine along the way and who knows, I might just encounter Alice."

* * *

Aliens.

Humans may think of them as beings that originated from the science fiction genre of movies, literature or any other media; but believe it or not, they were real. In fact, according to his knowledge, they might have just existed longer than humans did. He did not care much for origins, unless the topic really interested him. But his encounter with aliens was something that could be discussed over a few drinks and laughter.

Seventy years ago, he got tired of living on earth. He got the brilliant idea of moving to the nearest planet to earth, Mars. Now Mars was a better choice than the first two planet which was also closer to earth, but they were both closer to the sun, and he's sure that he's not the type of person who could take the heat well. Besides, there's actually water on Mars; that made it more liveable. So, after two days' worth of packing, he made it his way there. How?

He jumped over there of course.

He nearly caused the U.S military's aerial defense system when he exited their space so fast that he was mistaken for a missile; a reverse missile. But he easily disappeared to the atmosphere and eventually, to space. Now space… going to space without any astronaut equipment was… trippy. He didn't know that outer space smelled like seared steak and welding fume. But anyway, since there's no air in space, he had to hold his breath in order to reach his destination. And let him tell you, it was a long trip to Mars. He was sure that he got radiation… but knowing his body, that didn't last long enough.

When he finally reached Mar's atmosphere, he sunk down easily due to the weaker level of gravity. He had fun hopping all over the planet's surface. But, it was not as easy as he thought. NASA had managed to send drones or robots to Mars as a part of their research, so, he had to put effort in being careful to not be detected by them. And after a week of living there, he got bored.

Mars was all rocks and space storms; even earth was better than this. So, he tried to leave Mars and return back to earth.

But he did not reach earth.

To make a long story short, a spaceship, the one that's currently floating above Gensokyo, abducted him before he could even put his rock specimens inside of his briefcase. And once he found himself inside of the spaceship, he was greeted by the guy who owned it.

His name's Mob.

Long story short, Mob wanted him to join him because he thought that he's strong – and he's right – but he didn't want to join him and his alien friends so he pulled a Yondaime Hokage at him and returned back to earth.

It's been seventy years… to think that the guy's been looking for him after all this year… it nearly made him happy.

But beating the shit out of Mob's minions made him happier. And that's what he's doing, currently.

"Threat level Omega! Threat level Omega!" a shrilly voice belonging to one particular alien henchman screeched out in fear. "He's too strong!"

A small explosion occurred from within the spaceship, one that disintegrated the entire alien life form present on that particular part of the ship. The spaceship itself was suffering from multiple chain explosions, courtesy of your truly, and with the amount of destruction that happened in the past… ten seconds, the spaceship was already heavily damaged.

More explosions happened, and it shook the flying ship again and again. Naruto was done with the guys in front, and there's no doubt that that bastard alien boss Mob must be sitting on a throne at the end of this whole mess.

"A short cut would be nice." He murmured when looking at a wall inside one of the rooms. "This should get me there." He punched the walls and whatever section of the spaceship that was connected to it so hard that it was flung away to the ground below. He winced. "Ooh… good thing I told Reimu that there'll be damages."

He dashed through the Naruto-made short cut; ignoring every wounded alien he passed by. His main objective was to end this whole mess as quickly as possible, but he'll need to meet the boss of this ship first. His journey through the corridors of the ships was quick and in no time, he made his way to the boss room.

There's about a thousand aliens waiting for him inside that room, and they're all strong.

 **Play Pacific Rim OST – Main Theme**

" **Vermillion Rasengan."**

A spinning black orb destroyed the large doors that separated the room from the corridors, and it crashed into the thousands of aliens waiting in anticipation inside. Due to the lethal nature of the technique, it did its job effectively. It pulverized the very existence of those one thousand aliens, all but one.

"Hey, uh, Bob!" Naruto called out.

"IT'S MOB!" a deep baritone voice screamed in return.

"Yeah, whatever!" Naruto cracked his knuckles, before crossing his left arm and resting the elbow of his right on top of the back of his left arm's palm so that he could perch his head on his right hand's palm. "Think you could turn this thing away from here? Because there's people living in this place, y'know?"

The alien Lord Mob seethed in anger. He was humanoid in appearance, but his bodyweight was similar to two Arnold Schwarz-wachamacallit on super alien steroids. In other words, he's very muscular. His face was the type of face that only his mother could love, Naruto wasn't even sure that he could call that a face; because he couldn't tell which one was his eyes and which one was his nose. He's dressed in bulky and painfully large armor that covered all parts of him, from his abdomen, back, arms, legs, crotch and neck; save for his God forsaken face. He had a black cape to don on his back, giving him a try hard regal appearance.

"Uzumaki Naruto… finally, I have caught you!" he declared in a booming voice that annoyed the hell out of the immortal. "You who I have deemed to be my rival, my equal…! I give you this one last chance of surrendering all of your loyalty to me! If you shall not do so, I will end you along with this place!"

' _Dobe… let me at him. Only Uchihas are supposed to deliver a 'you're my rival' speech.'_

Naruto ignored the voice inside his head, he changed his pose, now with one hand on his hip and the other hanging loosely on his side. "I told you seventy years ago… no. I don't want to join your little empire, which I have just completely ended, nor do I want to swear loyalty to you." He glared poutingly. "I don't have that anymore."

Lord Mob growled in anger. "So be it! Then, it seems that I will have to show you my strength in order to make you sub-UUUUUUAAAAH!"

A large crater on the wall of the ship was caused when Lord Mob's body crashed into it, courtesy of Naruto's fist. Mob's seemingly indestructible armor was nothing more than glass shards, ready to be blown by the wind.

"You see here, _Bob_ ,"

"It's _MOB_!"

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE!" The blonde yelled manically. "There's so many things that you could do to piss me off, but there's one thing you should not do when pissing me off." Instantly, his standing form was nothing but an afterimage as he reappeared in front of the alien was still fixed to the wall.

"And that one thing? It's trying to make _me_ submit to _you_." His voice was as cold as the waters of river Styx.

He placed his palm on Mob's forehead.

"However, the reverse, is unfortunately allowed."

All it took was a little bit of chakra and Mob was already screaming in a hysteria of pain and misery. His howls measured just how much pain he was feeling, and since it's very, very loud; one could definitely say that it was one-of-a-kind feeling of pain.

"You think of me as an equal, but I do not."

He felt billions of needles piercing every single cell in his body. He howled even louder.

"There's only one person in this world that I have deemed equal, and even he is without form."

Mob was harshly dragged out from his spot, flung harshly, crashing to the floor of the giant empty room.

"I'm insulted, and no one insults me. Especially not in the manner you just did."

Instantly, Mob found himself in space. He couldn't remember what exactly caused him to be up here, but he felt pain on his chin area. He regained control of his eyes, capable of opening them.

Big mistake.

" **RUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**

"You made me reveal my powers to those two, and I don't like that."

It's a good thing that the vacuum of space did not let sound travel; otherwise, they might've heard Mob's painful screams all the way from earth when Naruto's finger dug themselves into his eye sockets and through his eye balls. Mob found himself being scorched with flames from the inside as Naruto's whole hand was enveloped in flames. How did he managed to create flames in the vacuum of space?

No one knew.

Then with a powerful dash, the two were like a meteorite crashing for earth. No, no, let's correct that. They crashed through the spaceship and then earth. There was a large gaping hole on the spaceship that it's a miracle to see it still intact and floating. And the ground they just crashed into, it's not a crater capable of becoming a mining site.

Mob was, for the lack of better term, fucked. He was everyone's definition of fucked. His face's fucked, his body's fucked, his armor's fucked, his spaceship's fucked… even his fuck was fucked.

Naruto let go of his hand from the alien's skull, seeing that there's nothing that remained but it alone. He spat bitterly at the rotting alien corpse, unsure whether they rot in the first place. "Fuck me…" he muttered irately.

"Now I'll get the attention of every single person in Gensokyo, have to repair this whole place and deal with the whole aftermath afterwards…" he found himself gazing upwards, and the heavily damaged spaceship was still floating there.

" **Shinra Tensei."**

The ship was launched all the way back to space with a single use of his technique.

"Tch… fucking eyesore…" he murmured irately. Huffing, he dropped on his arse, next to the corpse. He's bound to be greeted by the entirety of Gensokyo at this point. The tengu people definitely saw that, Keine will probably be here and there's no telling what curios yokai might wander off to investigate the crater. So, he'll do himself a favor and teleport back to Reimu's shrine.

He's sure that she'll be happy to see him.

* * *

When they see the equivalent to a small meteorite crash landed through the ship and into Gensokyo, their jaws dropped, but when they saw the ship being suddenly launched back into space by an invisible force, their eyes nearly popped out. Reimu and Marisa will need to go to the clinic in order to purchase some muscle relief medicine because their jaws will be sore afterwards.

Reimu was the first one to recover, but inside, she was still torn on… everything! She lifted her gohei, which was a necessary tool in order to temporarily shut down the barrier that surrounds Gensokyo. She began her job of re-erecting the Great Hakurei Barrier once again, summoning it will take time, but it will be done in a short while.

Marisa was still standing with boggled eyes and jaws dropped beside her. And by the time she finished re-erecting the barrier, Reimu silently made her way inside of her shrine, preparing tea.

Several minutes later, Naruto appeared right outside of the shrine in a flash. He noticed Marisa standing near the edge of the shrine with her eyes boggled out and jaws so low that it touched the ground. Wordlessly, he picked the girl up by the stomach and he carried her inside the shrine like a luggage.

Upon entering the shrine, Reimu already prepared a mug for him. Again, silently, he placed the still boggled and jaw dropped witch near the entrance, as she showed no signs of moving.

Without words, he sat down on his usual spot when in Reimu's place; just opposite of the shrine maiden. He stretched his hands, stretching them upwards and took a quiet sip from his mug.

.

.

.

"So about that crater…"

"Don't worry, I'll fix it."

"Ah, good then."

And they drink the rest of the evening in silence.

* * *

 **Author's Note: There's the first official incident of this story and today's incident solver was Naruto. And poor Reimu, Naruto forgot to ask how they managed to put an entire spaceship inside of Gensokyo. Oh well, he'll remember it sooner or later.**

 **Now some of you may or may not like the way I write my fight scenes, and that's something that I could not blame since it is entirely subjective. I can't force you to like it, but the least you could do is try it out. And I'm sorry to say for those who didn't like it, since most of my fight scenes will be like that. Yeah.**

 **In any case, please tell me what you want to see more in the story by using the reviewer's section. Favorite and follow this story so that I know that you're supporting me. Next update will be done in this week… or next week, unsure since school's starting. But don't worry, I shall try my best to keep uploading as fast as I can, but please do understand that there are some days that I can't be bothered to write.**


	7. Lesson Learned

**So I've been loving the reviews that you guys have been giving me. Thank you so very much and to those of you who thinks that this story needs more review, I can assure you that I have more to improve on, so please, continue to watch over me as I grow.**

 **This chapter will answer the questions that you might have, so please, enjoy it. But before we proceed…**

 **I think that it's time I give a title for each chapters, no? But here's the thing though, I'm not really good at giving titles. Hell Ramen Days was just a name I came up randomly. So, I'll leave it to you guys in the reviewers section and hopefully, you'll be able to suggest some good title names. For future chapter onwards, I'll post the chapter first before changing the chapter's title and announce the contributor in the next chapter and so on.**

 **And I highly recommend the use of soundtracks in this chapter, please.**

* * *

"Hey, take a small break, doing this for six hours straight must be tiring."

Naruto slowly turned his body to face the person who was standing behind him. He gave Reimu a small nod, sighing as he retreated under the shade of a tree where several other people were waiting for him along with Reimu. It's midnight, and he already began with fixing the construction ever since six in the evening.

"Yeah, bro, I'm still surprised that someone was even able to pull that kind of shit off." Marisa, who was leaning her back to the tree they were under, commented while holding a mug with one hand. She was flicked on the head by someone, someone who didn't appreciate the profanity she used. "Ow! Keine, what the hell?!"

"Marisa-san, I do not appreciate the use of those words while I'm around." The teacher truly lived up to her reputation, because she could be strict whenever she wanted to.

"Alright, sheesh…" the witch grumbled before sipping her tea from her mug.

Reimu poured a cup out for Naruto and he took it with gratitude. The blonde immortal took a small sip from his mug, before releasing a content sigh when the warmth of the tea began invading his throat.

"Still didn't know how you're able to make them so good, Reimu." Naruto said, handing her the mug back for some refill.

"I'll take it as a compliment." She refilled his cup, and returned it to him again.

"Because it is one." He said without opening his eyes. "And dear Alice, may I know why you are scooting away from me as if I'm sort of disease?"

Alice flinched when she was caught doing what she was suspected of doing. True, the blonde puppeteer had been scooting away from the immortal who was seated beside her ever since he made his presence in the group. The puppeteer was now subjected upon multiple stare, keen to see what her explanation to the man's accusation would be.

"After what you just pulled, I can't say I blame her for doing it." Reimu was the one who answered instead of Alice, and she did not miss the grateful look sent her way from the puppeteer.

Currently, the small group of five were resting and enjoying the night drinking tea while Naruto's clones were working to fix the giant crater that was the result of an aftermath of today's earlier battle, or one sided curb stomp. He had about fifty clones doing the re-construction of the landscape, most of them were filled to the brim with his chakra and that's the reason why he really needed his rest. Of course, he did the initial jobs himself; such things as measuring the diameter of the crater, depth and calculating the necessary volume of earth that will be needed in order to fill it back.

He'd need about… roughly sixty tons of dirt to cover up the whole crater, and a lot of fertilizer in order to regrow the grasses.

But fortunately, he's got hax power.

"But man…" Marisa whistled with amazement. "You handed the little sister's ass to her, beat an evil alien lord, and flung his ship back to space! Didn't you say that the guy's crazy strong?"

"I did."

"But it didn't seem like you're having trouble when you beat his ass." Marisa pointed out wryly.

Naruto opened a single eye, putting down his mug. "Hm… I just didn't allow him to attack me, if I could do that, why not?" he gave her a nonchalant and easygoing shrug, one that caused the audience presence to wonder about his state of mind. "But seriously, that guy was annoying the first time I met him seventy years ago and he still was before I messed him up."

"Defeating the threat is a good thing… but you ought to think of the destruction you might cause." Keine began lecturing the blonde immortal, her hands on her hips even while seated. "It's a good thing that the village was not hit by any fallen debris from the spaceship, but it will still cause trouble for the yokais living in the wilderness."

Naruto turned his head to face her, feeling that it would be the only appropriate thing to do. "Hey, in my defense, I did ask him to turn back nicely so that we can do the fighting elsewhere."

"And how long did it take you to talk to him?" Alice couldn't help but ask.

"About five seconds before I bash his skull in."

"That's not even trying to persuade him you idiot!" Marisa shouted.

Alice glared at her witch friend. "You are the last person I want to hear that from, Marisa."

Reimu sighed; this job will give her grey hair before she'll even reach her thirties. "Anyway, things went better than I expected. But there are still some questions I would like to know…" her eyes transformed into a glare directed at the immortal blonde. "It would've been nice if someone asked the questions first _before_ killing the culprit…"

Naruto shrugged; nothing he could do to change that.

"Yeah, I mean; where the hell did that thing came from, what caused the fairies to get bananas in the first place and I bet that Yukari had a hand in this." Marisa muttered. "This just doesn't sit well in one sitting, and you know what else doesn't… Yukari."

Naruto wondered, were they doing this in purpose? Just who the hell was this Yukari person? Her name's been popping up ever since yesterday and he still haven't figured out anything about her. Feeling that he got at least the honor of knowing the mysterious person's true identity, he decided to ask.

"Who is this Yukari?" he asked blatantly without any means of reading the current mood.

Reimu gave him a strange look. "Haven't I told you before?"

"No, you didn't." he told her.

Reimu hummed, thinking.

"Well… how should I say this…? Yukari is… trouble." She concluded, causing the immortal to raise an eyebrow. "If there's anything weird that might result in the potential harming of Gensokyo or any other random happenings, it has got to be Yukari's fault. See, if she'd do it for a good reason or something, I would understand that. But that woman, she'll do the things whatever pleases her, regardless of what it is. Seriously, she's trouble."

"Huh, sounds like she's not very appreciated by you folks here." With the way Reimu did her explanation, he could only assume that much.

Alice shook her head in negative. "No. We do appreciate her, but it is more on respect. While what Reimu said is indeed true, Yakumo Yukari is an individual that could easily define the word mystery itself. No one knows where she lives, aside from the fact that she lives within the border of Gensokyo and even her shikigami is sometimes clueless as to what's going on in her master's head. But she is a powerful individual, there is no denying that."

Marisa took a swig of her tea, before joining in the conversation. "There's no denying the fact that she's old too. Heh."

"Eh…?" Naruto looked upwards, taking in the beautiful scenery of the night starry sky of Gensokyo. "This Yukari person seems like an interesting woman."

"Oh no, no, no, no." everyone turned towards Keine. "You are _not_ meeting her, I'm not allowing it."

Everyone stared at her weird, but Marisa was the one who acted first. "Oh ya, oh ya~…" she crept towards the teacher, leaning to her side with her lips turned into a large Cheshire grin. "Why are you so insistent in letting whiskers over here meet Yukari? Afraid that the gap hag will steal your man from you?"

The witch, just for the hell of it, turned to the doll maker. "Hey Alice, ze, it seems like you're too late! Keine claimed him first!" she snickered when she saw the reddening of her fellow magician's face.

The doll maker recoiled after hearing the words coming out from Marisa's mouth. "T – That's none of my business, Marisa! Hmph!"

Fortunately for Alice, she was not the only who was suffering from the embarrassment. "M – Marisa-san!" Keine shrieked like a high school girl who had just gotten her crush found out by one of her teasing friends. "I – I do not harbor such feelings for Naruto-san! A – And he is not my 'man'!"

"I don't get you people, just how many odd jobs are there for me to meet? As if the vampires weren't weird enough." Well, technically, they weren't. He was just still getting used to how different Gensokyo can be from his normal everyday life out in the outside world.

Reimu snorted, casting a side glance. "Even if I have more than ten fingers, I could barely even count half of them…" she refilled her own cup, seeing that it was beginning to empty. "But I have to agree with Keine. You meeting Yukari would be like pitting a tiger and lion in the same cage; nothing good will come out of it. Knowing the woman, however, it could just happen anytime soon… hell I'm not surprised if she's listening in to this conversation."

The Hakurei shrine maiden directed her glare to the sky. "You hear me Yukari!? We're going to have a looooong talk when you decided to show yourself!" she raised her fist, shaking it like an angry grandpa.

"In any case…" Keine pitches in, taking control of the conversation. "I won't allow you to meet that woman. And Reimu mentioned some truths and reason as to why I'm not letting you. Still, there's really no telling when and where Yukari will show herself… If my guess of her antics are correct, she's probably watching us from her residence with something brewing in that head of hers."

"But fixing that huge crater would be easier if she helped, though." Marisa intervened, putting up a point. "Why don't we have her use her powers to fix it? That way, grandpa over here won't have to tire his old bones."

"Hey, that's a good ide-"

"It is not." Reimu silenced the immortal with a glare. "You promised that you'll fix that crater on your own, we don't need a convenient gap hag both helping and ruining our day more than what it already is."

"So you're saying that my abilities aren't convenient?" Naruto asked, bitterly.

"No, they're suspicious." Reimu replied in a deadbeat tone. "I don't care what kind of fancy gibber-gabber that you're capable of pulling out from that bag of yours, because I surely do not want anything involved with it."

"…Not even the shiny bits?"

"…okay, maybe those, but those only. The others, forget it." The shrine maiden scoffed.

Naruto chuckled a little bit, before finally setting his mug aside. "Well, I guess it's time for me to leave…" he picked himself up from the grass, dusting his pants off before reaching for his briefcase.

"Leave, but you're not done with the-"

The crater that was there from the fight caused by the immortal and the alien dude?

It's gone. Gone, legit gone, as if someone had filled the massive hole with dirt and plant fertilizer all over it so that grass could grow back in just three minutes.

Naruto made a gesture of 'voila'. "Can I leave now?"

"…I hate you so much…"

Naruto gave Reimu an understanding look. "Don't worry, you're not the first to tell me that."

* * *

People might wonder, isn't it uncomfortable to wear a stylish and fancy suit in the middle of summer, during the day?

And, he'll answer them; no, it isn't.

It's not uncomfortable wearing a stylish and fancy suit in the middle of summer, because his attire was special. It was by no means just a normal set of fancy attire, it was designed and equipped with the necessary functions for someone such as him.

Though he had not been doing that much large scale fighting in the past few years, he still think that several upgrades to his clothing won't hurt. In fact, it had just came in handy when that alien bastard, Bob, arrived yesterday. Now just what was it that made his suit special? Well… a lot of things, actually.

The fabric used to make the shirt, pants, tie and coat were no normal fabric. They're made from the hair of Gods and Goddesses!

Yes, call him a creepy fuck or whatever, and yes, he ran through the rubbish of several other deities during his younger days and yes he's damn proud of it.

He's serious, all of the suits he had with him were made from the hair of deities! Hence the unique properties they give when made into a piece of clothing. For example, his suits could not be burned because of the divine traces of the deity it belonged to. Speaking of belongings, acquiring them was hard, because not all gods appreciate the thought of you sneaking through their trash cans so that you could take their hair. Good thing he had Loki to help him, man that bastard's good.

Back to topic… while he was thiiis close in gathering enough hair to let him make at least a wardrobe worth of clothing, the Gods and Goddesses he'd been stealing his hair from found out. And who ratted him out? Loki. That bastard. Needless to say, he was in a lot of shit that day and so was Loki afterwards, albeit in the **literal** sense. But long story short, he managed to get away with it after explaining the situation to the horde of angry deities. They dismissed the matter quickly, seeing that losing needless hair was the least of their concern.

So, everyone's happy! He got to have materials to make super good clothing and they got their trash cans emptied without fee.

But…

"Huh… which one should I go with today…?"

' _Oh my God, Naruto, dobe, they're all the same freaking thing!'_

"Shut up Sasuke, I'm in the middle of deciding."

' _GAAAAH! You're such a girl!'_

He picked up a set.

"Aha, this one seems good."

' _Finally!'_

"On second thought… it's not so good anymore."

' _GRAAAAH! YOU'RE MESSING WITH ME, AREN'T YOU DOBE?! IS THIS BECAUSE OF ME LEAVING KONOHA?! HUH?!'_

"Oh! This one's it, definitely!"

In the end, he finally settled on a set.

The current set of attire, though the same type of clothing, was a little bit different than the ones he wore yesterday. Instead of the usual white shirt, he was wearing a wine colored long sleeved collared shirt with black buttons, a slightly different variation of his usual black coat – now with more pockets inside – along with a pair of orange slacks, a set of polished black suede's and the original black tie was replaced by an orange colored one. He also had a clone cut his hair for him last night, seeing as he really needed the cut. Instead of the normally shaggy, wild and untamed mane he had before; his hair was neater and shorter. If he remembered correctly, this type of hairstyle was called an undercut? Is that it? Hm… he didn't even know that he knew anything about hairstyling, what have his clones been reading during their free time anyway?

"Thanks for letting me borrow the Rinnegan the other day, Sasuke."

' _No problem… that alien was beginning to annoy me anyway.'_

As he was repacking his things back into his briefcase, Naruto couldn't help but snort. "Tell me about it…" he had borrowed the Rinnegan from his form-less friend a couple of times, but only during situations where he wanted to end something quick. Like yesterday's one sided curb stomp, for example.

' _So, what are we going to do today? Fight another alien? Or a vampire, perhaps?'_

"Your sarcasm hasn't been improving over the last fifty years or so, Sasuke." Naruto replied while his hands were busy straightening his tie. "I don't think I'll be doing that, but who knows? This is Gensokyo after all."

' _Ugh… don't tell me about it… just wake me up when something interesting's happening. Night.'_

"Yeah, go to sleep you fucking hikikomori." Seriously, maybe he should just find a body for Sasuke after all. That guy's beginning to change, and it's not in the good sense. Still, a lazy Sasuke would be something to behold… just think of what Sakura might do to the guy? Or him, for that matter.

He closed his briefcase with a loud snap, having used to do this all the time, he gotten the ability of doing all of this with only one eye opened. He didn't bother sleeping after returning from fixing that crater, he just returned back home to grab a quick change of clothes before he'll head out to spend the rest of his days doing something that he hadn't even thought about yet.

He could always visit Reimu, but that's getting a little bit too redundant. And if he's unlucky, he'll meet the noisy witch along with her introvert doll making friend. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, he just thought that it'll be good to have a different destination and people to talk to.

"Speaking of talks… Keine owe me a date." Well, at least now, he got something to do. Walking outside of his house, he made sure to lock the front door before storing the key in his pocket. His destination was the Human Village and what better way to get there aside from using a handy transportation technique called **Warp**?

He walked through the ethereal hallways of broken mirrors silently, until he found a perfect place to land. Now arrived, he found himself transported to an alleyway near Keine's school. He walked out of the alley and towards the school, since it was still early, class was just about to start; explaining why there're still kids outside instead of inside.

He watched with amusement at the children running around the small playground just outside of the school with a small smile on his face. Children are dumb, sure, but they're cute. All of his previous children too were cute, before they died on their deathbed. He could remember all the children he had in his life, and all of them will have a special place in his heart.

Or his left ventricle, to be more specific.

As he was knee deep in his thoughts, he failed to notice the duo that was approaching him. "Ah, Naruto-san!"

Snapped from his own musing, Naruto was drawn towards the direction of the voice. It's Keine and… friend?

"This is the guy you told me?" the other person who was in Keine's company asked the hat wearing teacher.

"Yes, it is him." Keine did a small bow. "How are you doing, Naruto-san? I take it that you have a good night rest after yesterday's event?"

He was trying his best not to mind the newcomer, seeing as he had no interest in him. "I didn't bother sleeping, it's already morning when I reached home anyway." The blonde reached inside of his coat pockets, pulling out a cigar and a lighter and he began attempting to light the cigar with the lighter. "I… decided… not to… sleep… excuse me, this thing is getting annoying." He threw the lighter away, seeing as it was broken. "Well, there goes my morning smoke." He pouted.

The white haired stranger stepped forward, offering the blonde a light. "Here."

Naruto looked at the white haired person, a thankful look crossing his face. "Ah, thanks." He placed the tip of his cigar near the flames, letting it burn.

"No problem."

Keine watched the exchange with a disapproving glare. "I can't believe that you'd smoke where there're kids around, Naruto-san!"

Naruto was about to say something, but he was interrupted by the white haired and funnily dressed individual next to Keine. "Just let the guy smoke, Keine, hell knows he needs it."

Naruto sent his fellow smoker a grateful look while taking a deep drag of his cigar.

"Mokou! You shouldn't be supporting him! And you should not smoke too, you're a woman! Try to act more ladylike!"

Naruto began coughing. 'You're a woman…' was the unasked question, simply because he didn't want to make whatever little relation that he and the white haired woman had. "S – Sorry, jus' went down the wrong pipe, 's all."

"See?" Keine gestured to the coughing man. "You'll end up like that."

The now known as Mokou shrugged while pulling out a cigar of her own, but unlike Naruto's, she didn't need a lighter to light it. The cigar lit up on its own. "Meh."

"Miss Keine, to what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you?" the man with the new hairstyle asked, somehow managing to do that without dropping his cig. "Or is this just coincidence?"

"It is, but I'm more interested on what you're doing in front of my school early in the morning."

Naruto's eyes narrowed musingly. "Touché, but I'd like to hear your answer first."

Keine sighed. The fatigue of having to stay up late at night to deal with the aftermath of yesterday's incident finally catching up to her, causing to avoid an argument. "I'm here to make an announcement. Due to the incident that happened yesterday, I have to close the school down for the day."

Naruto blinked twice, finding her statement off. "But nothing happened to the village, right?"

Keine nodded, a mildly disappointed look fixing itself upon her face. "True, but people are getting paranoid over yesterday's incident that they asked the village's chief to close down the school as well as stopping the supply transfers to the minor settlements outside of the village."

"Eh… paranoia, huh…?" the whiskered man snorted, inwardly inhaling tobacco even more into his system. "That's something you can't really kill." He shook his head, in the notion of dismissing something. "Anyway, aren't you going to do your job? Don't let me keep your students from waiting."

Keine began to walk for the school's entrance, until a shout from child shook her.

"KYAAAAH! SACHI-CHAN!"

The three adults' instincts kicked in, and out of the three of them, Mokou's and Naruto's were the sharpest.

They found the source of attention, noticing that a crowd of children was pointing upwards towards the direction of the roof. Of course, they wouldn't be screaming and shouting if there wasn't something out of the ordinary of some sort. Unfortunately, there was. A girl, short, dressed in a simple red one piece dress with a pair of sandals and black waterfall like hair blowing due to the wind. She's standing on the edge of the school's roof, which was stylized in a slight slanted triangular position as it was easier to let the rain water flow down that way.

Seeing the scene, it was obvious to guess where the direction was taking itself into.

The screams of children and passing adults were heard once again when the girl took a small hesitating step forward to air.

"Mokou, catch that girl."

The white haired, ribbon using woman in the red suspenders took her eyes off the scene in order to look at the blonde beside her. She saw the blonde taking off his coat as well as putting his briefcase on the ground below him. She could take a guess and say that he never took his eyes off from the girl on the roof. But she could be wrong, after all, it was her who took her eyes off from the girl.

However, Naruto, he disappeared just like that.

And in his place, was that girl, in mid-air in a falling motion. Mokou's reflexes kicked in and she immediately grabbed the girl, preventing her from hitting the ground.

"KYAAAAAAAH!"

Unfortunately, Naruto had to take the fall for the girl… **literally**.

* * *

 **Play If my heart had wings OST – Under Drops**

"Are you okay, Naruto-san?"

The little scene of the attempted suicide was quickly dispersed, and Keine got to tell her initial announcement to the students. With him the only who's feeling pain.

The injured immortal raised a hand, both as sign of telling the teacher that he was fine and there was no need for her to waste words on him. If he had to be honest though… it's mostly on the latter.

"How's the girl, she okay?"

Hearing the question, Keine's expression transformed from a worried one to something more along the lines of depressed and downcast. "Sachi-chan… she's fine. We took her back to my house, and let her rest." She clenched her hands tight, a common thing that people do when they're in anxiety. "But… you heard what she said, right?"

Naruto didn't spare her the opportunity to recall it herself.

"' _I want to die…'_ isn't that right?"

Keine nodded.

The school was empty, because of the reason that Keine had told him earlier. He's currently sitting on the small steps of stairs that lead into the building and outside at the same time.

"Tell me, Miss Keine, why would a nine year old want to die?" his composure was oddly calm, as if he knew the answer but still insisted on asking it.

"Sachi-chan, you see, she lost her parents two years ago. Ever since then, she was adopted by a family who took her in with open arms… but people couldn't figure out why she's being so suicidal." The hat wearing teacher explained. "Normally, her suicidal tendencies were tamer than this… but to see that she's brave enough to pull something like that off, I guess it's tougher than I thought for the poor girl."

The blonde still did not say anything, his gaze was busy with the now empty street in front of him.

"But she's a nice girl, she's just… sick."

"Sick?" Naruto copied Keine's words with his mouth, and it didn't feel right. "No, she's not sick." He stood up to his feet, dusting his pants afterwards. He turned to look at the teacher, showing her his normally attractive but dull look. "She needs help."

Keine tilted her head. "Isn't that what I said?"

She saw the immortal shaking his head. "No, you said that she was 'sick', not that she needed help. Someone who's sick doesn't necessarily means that they need help. Sometimes, people get sick because they want to. Either it's to skip school or work, we all know about that." He tapped the bottom of his chin with his pointer. "But here's what we don't know; we assume that people need help because they are sick, not because they needed one in the first place."

Keine began to see what he meant. She knew that Sachi was mentally sick, it's the only way to explain her current condition.

"What she needs are not doctors or psychiatrists, she needs help." He told her.

"But… what kind of help?" The school teacher asked, voice wavering.

Naruto can only give her a phantom smile. "I don't know, why don't we ask her?"

 **Play If my heart had wings OST – Nobody's**

 **SNAP**

In the blink of an eye, they were in a small room where Sachi was resting. Keine's house.

"Why don't you ask little Sachi over there, she's awake, isn't she?"

True to his words, the girl was indeed awake. Throughout all this time, Keine did not once ask how he was able to instantly teleport them to her home. She could only stare at the thin, long haired girl who was staring at the both of them with empty eyes.

Naruto took notice of those eyes, and he chuckled. "What an interesting pair of eyes you have there, kid." He walked over to the child, seeing as she did not react to his approach, he took a seat near the edge of the futon that probably belonged to Keine. "They look like a shark's. Creepy."

Keine was about to reprimand the man for insulting her student and taking light of the situation at the same time, but a single gesture from him managed to keep her from speaking anything.

"Ever seen a shark before?" she did not react. "No? Well, let me show you what it looks like." He shuffled the contents of his briefcase, pulling out something that caused the girl to jump back in fright and Keine yelping in surprise. "Now… this… is… a shark!" he held the six foot long marine animal, which was still wet and currently splashing water all over the place, by the tailbone as he lifted it up in the air for the girl to see.

"Now don't run away, take a closer look at its eyes. Look at it."

The girl, Sachi, was noticeable shaking. She was trembling. But she could not take her eyes away from the rabid, struggling marine predator.

"See it?"

"Naruto-san! Put that thing away immediately!"

Naruto gave Keine a disappointed look. "Aww, you're no fun Keine. Fine, I'll put it away." He reopened his briefcase with one hand, before shoving the shark back into it and closing it shut once again. "There, you happy?"

"Happy?" Keine's lips parroted the word without sound. She could not believe this person! He's just too absurd! "I'm mad! How can I be happy?!" roared the teacher with a strong voice. "You just traumatized an already mentally ill child by pulling out that… fish from your bag!" then, the realization hit her. "…why do you have a shark in your bag?"

Naruto gave her a hard look. "I… can't tell you why, but I can tell you why I have a headless chicken though, wanna see him? I call him Cluck." He began to reach for his briefcase but was stopped halfway.

"NO! NO, I DON'T WANT TO!" Keine shouted, stopping the man before he could do anything further.

"Aw… but Cluck's funny though, he can walk even though he has no head."

"And why are you laughing about that, huh?! Do you find the thought of something walking without its head amusing?!"

"Yeah, is that wrong?" Naruto blinked owlishly.

On a completely different note, a certain cape wearing dullahan sneezed a lot the moment Naruto mentioned a headless chicken in his conversation.

"That's disturbing!" Keine cried out in what seemed to be desperation. Her shoulders dropped, honestly tired. "Just… just explain to me why you pulling something as absurd and preposterous such as a shark…"

Naruto smiled smugly as he allowed himself to change his sitting posture, mind you, he was still on the edge of the futon after all this time. "Let the great Uzumaki Naruto-sama explain!" he dropped his briefcase entirely, crossing his hands as he raised his nose so that it's so up high in the air.

"Our little Sachi-chan over here hit her rebellious age earlier than any other kids her age." Despite the situation, he still managed to look so smug and like. "I can perfectly understand that, I've been there too. Anyway, depression, is both subjective and objective. Some things may depress you, but it might not depress me, but sometimes, certain factors may result in depression regardless of just how different the two individuals are. For example," he smiled. "experiencing the death of a family member."

He did not have to see Sachi to know that she flinched.

"It's the same case with a particular phobia called trypophobia," his face became hard again, but more pained as he let out a small wince. "don't ever search for that, please, I beg you," then his smug persona returned. "people who have and lacks the phobia will find themselves reacting in the same manner when presented with a picture of one; creeped the fuck out."

The blonde let his smug look fade slowly.

"In our little Sachi-chan's case here, she's suffering from both depression and suicidal tendencies, and those two **must** never go along together."

Keine was still waiting patiently. "And what about the shark?"

"...eh… I just wanted to pull something completely absurd so that this conversation wouldn't have to be so serious…"

The teacher slapped herself square on the face. "…Please, go on." She gestured for the man to continue.

"Suicidal tendencies and depression is an expected result, because her young mind could not come up with solutions of having to deal and cope with loss of her parents from her life." He noticed the little tyke gripping down hard on her own arms, bound to create scars of her own if continued. "So, I'm offering her the cure." He chirped happily.

Even Sachi looked surprise, let alone Keine.

This time, he crept slowly to the little girl, a kind but phantom like smile was present on his face.

"Sachi-chan, what is it that you want, really?"

"… _I want to die."_

It was not an utterance of words, but a pained whisper of someone who had suffered from a great deal of pain.

Keine's heart fell,

But Naruto smiled even wider.

"True, death cures all wounds."

Mokou, who had just entered the room, was staring at the blonde man as he confronted the girl. She kept silent and opted to observe along with her friend.

"But death can't help you, not yet."

He gripped her small shoulders lightly, almost affectionately. His phantom of a smile transformed into something more understanding; showing the child just how familiar he was with her situation. Then, he lifted his hands, letting their warmth leaving the girl. She heard him sigh.

"However, if you think death could help you, then I'll help you die."

Keine's hat fell from her head, and Mokou's mouth hung open. The two tried to step in, but they found their bodies restrained by something invisible. The two females struggled, unable to get free from whatever's binding them. Mokou noticed the thin, nearly invisible silk like wire coiling around her arms; she found that the rest of her body parts were bound in place by the same wire.

"Oi, the hell you're telling her?!" Mokou roared, whilst she was struggling to break free from the bindings. Keine was doing the same thing as her, but to no luck.

The only man in the room ignored the shout coming from the suspenders wearing woman. Instead, he asked Sachi one final time, "What do you want, kid?"

"I want to die." The girl replied, monotonously, empty.

Naruto gestured to the girls while turning his head to the two struggling women. "You heard her. She wants to die."

"But I thought that you'd help her!?" Keine yelled in outrage. "Are you mad Naruto-san?!"

The blonde immortal had the decency to nod his head. "I did say that, and she wants death. That'll be like helping her, right?"

Mokou had enough. She summoned her flames, roaring it to existence. But to no avail. His threads were fireproof, even the flames of a great phoenix could not melt them.

"I'll give her what she so desires."

A dagger made of silver glinted in the dark-

-and he plunged it into the little girl's chest.

Keine's scream was heard throughout the whole neighborhood.

* * *

"Where… where am I?"

Her life _was_ good.

"It's… it's dark…" she cowered to herself, hugging her little form close.

She _was_ happy.

"Mommy… Daddy… I'm scared…"

She was the son of the most loving parents in the whole wide world. They cherished her, they adored her, and most importantly; they loved her.

She could not feel anything besides the chill; her small form could not help but tremble and shiver. She could not see in this eternal darkness, she felt herself sinking deeper, and deeper into a never abyss of despair. She did not dare look up, because she knew that even if she were to do that, she will be greeted by darkness. So, she cried to herself.

Her life was good until that event happened to her, to her parents. Their death was not natural, it was murder. Murdered, her parents were now gone; forever. She was there when it happened, she saw the scene playing through with her own two eyes. From watching that, she knew just how fragile the human body was. Made out of tissues and flesh, protected by the comfort of skin and bones, humans failed to realize just how fragile they were. A yokai's teeth could easily tore through those. She knew; she saw it after all.

But one thing that never got to sink in her young mind was her point surviving that night. Why? Why was she spared when her parents were eaten? Why waste another potentially delicious and easy meal? She did not know.

She could only shiver even more as she recalled the memory of that day, her tears flowing down more intensely than before. So that Onii-san granted her wish, huh?

This is death, huh?

How… how…

Scary.

 **Play Eufonius - Holograph**

"No…" she sobbed out. "No… nonononono! It's scary… mommy… daddy…" she trashed around, and she noticed something. She was inside of something, something long and rectangular, a coffin! "Help! Anyone! Help me! I'm trapped here!"

Were the priests and priestesses lying when they said that death will reunite people with those that they've lost? She thought that she could finally meet her parents now that she's dead. But this darkness….

"Mom! Dad! Where are you?!" she shouted, choking on her sobs. "God! Help me!" her trashing grew even more intense. She banged the coffin, hoping that someone would hear her.

Even God ignored her, huh?

"What have I done…?! What have Sachi done to deserve this?!" the howl of a girl who was hurt echoed in the seemingly eternal and never ending darkness. "Please… God… I don't want to die…! This is scary…!" as her sobbing grew louder, the more she felt her sense of thought being overcome by despair.

There's no hope, she's dead after all.

"I want to live… I – I want to play with the other kids again! I want to go to school and listen to Keine-sensei's lectures! I want to live again!" the desperate cries of a nine year old child. How… sad.

"Please…" her sobbing was akin to that of eternity itself, never ending. "I want to live…"

" _Is that what you want?"_

Her body shivered. "YES! YES! I WANT TO LIVE!"

" _Then rise, Sachi."_

She pulled every ounce of strength that she could muster from her weakened body, and she used it to burst the coffin open. She felt air! She felt the rain! She felt the muddy dirt on her skin and dress! But she was alive!

"Ugh…! Ugh!" she crawled her way out from the wooden coffin, where everything was wet and muddy due to the rain that was pouring down. "I – I'm alive! I'm… I'm alive…!"

"Yeah you are."

Sachi looked up, shielded from the downpour. A familiar blonde man offered a hand to her, while holding an umbrella with his other one. "How was it, not as comforting as you thought, huh?"

Sachi's tears began to pool on her eyes, her glands somehow managed to produce more tears. Instead of accepting the hand he offered her, she jumped straight for his chest, staining his shirt and coat in mud, and began bawling her eyes out.

He used the hand that he offered her earlier to comfort her by stroking her dirtied hair, hushing soft words that would ease her down. "It's scary, isn't it?" he felt her nod. "Cold, isn't it?" again. "Lonely, isn't it?" and again. Then he pulled her into a one armed hug, letting her cold and soaked form be enveloped in his warmth. "That's what death feels like to those who aren't ready to face him."

The young girl continued to bawl into his chest, staining her tears into his clothing. He hugged her tighter, tighter and even tighter.

The sound of two pair of feet dropping to the ground was heard coming from behind the man. He turned his head from the girl go greet the two people who was just in time to see a newly born Sachi.

"Miss Keine, Mokou, you're late." He said, tipping the red umbrella slightly as a sign of acknowledgement. He chuckled in amusement as he took in the sight of the two women. They were drenched and fatigued, four days without rest will do that to anyone. He saw Keine approaching him, but he stopped her by speaking, "You can do whatever you want to me after I've finished my explanation."

He tapped the crying girl's head softly, as a way of showing that he wanted to speak to her. "Sachi, do you want to know why you're still alive?"

Though she was still crying, she managed to nod her head.

Naruto smiled. "When I stabbed you with that knife, did you feel pain?" she shook her head. "No, right?"

Keine and Mokou were stunned.

"In fact, what did you feel?"

She hugged him tighter.

"Cold, right?" he chuckled. "Yes, that dagger I stabbed you with is special, you see. It won't kill you, because I have no intention of killing you in the first place. It merely puts you into a state of unconsciousness that lasted for four whole days." Again, both Keine and Mokou were speechless.

He nudged his head, referring to the coffin. "And that coffin? It's also special. When you were in there for the past three days, you were only asleep. There are special modifications made in that coffin that allows you to breathe, even when if you're buried halfway into the dirt. And the casket's lid was light, right? It's because I made it that way, so that you could easily get out."

"I know that you don't want to die Sachi, I know it. But I can't just let you go unpunished after you've carelessly denounced your life like that." His tone took a strict turn, like a father scolding his daughter. "I don't want to see you speak like that ever again, do you hear me?"

"Y – Yes…" she pulled away from his abdomen, glancing upwards to show him her tearful and mud smudged face.

Chuckling, he kneeled down and proceeded to wipe off whatever smudges that were present on her face with his thumb. "Your life is important Sachi. Though it's painful, though it hurts, though it feels sad… life must be lived."

The downpour faded, the stormy clouds clearing.

Sachi felt a pair of warm set of arms embraced her. She no longer felt cold.

"If you ever feel like dying again… I want you to think of what you said down there." He pulled away slightly from the embrace, showing her his megawatt smile. "Okay?"

Sachi's eyes went wide.

" _Good girl Sachi!"_

" _Sachi-chan, happy birthday!"_

" _We love you, Sachi."_

She saw two familiar looking silhouettes standing behind Keine and Mokou, smiling. They turned, disappearing completely.

"Yes…" the young girl breathed out. Tears began to pour out from her eyes again. But this time, she had a smile present on her face. "Yes!"

* * *

The sky was clear, giving a nice clear view of the night sky.

Three adults, and one sleeping nine year old, was walking down the forest path, towards a similar destination. They walked without sound, not talking, not even looking at each other. Their journey was quick when basked in silence, so they were back at the village's gate in no time.

"Miss Keine! Miss Keine!" a scrawny villager ran up to them with a lantern in hand, panic written all over his face. "Where have you been?! We were worried about you…" he took notice of the sleeping child who was being carried by the blonde. "And is that little Sachi? Where have she been, she's been missing for four days straight! Her adoptive parents are so worried about her!"

Instead of Keine who answered, it was Naruto. "She was… lost." He reassured him with a smile. Slowly, he moved Sachi to a carry position. "Take her to her family… she's been through a lot." 'a lot' was jesting it.

"O – Okay…" the scrawny man was unsure of what the blonde foreigner was doing carrying Sachi, but a nod from Keine made him sure that everything was fine. He excused himself, leaving the three to stand in front of the village's gate.

A moment of silence passed through like a passerby, but it stayed longer than expected. The wind was pretty strong, as if it was trying to wash away the deeds that Naruto had done.

The immortal man opened his mouth to speak,

"You won't have to worry about me meeting Sachi again, Miss Keine." He spoke, his back faced towards her and Mokou. "Because the moment she wakes up the next day, she'll only remember what happened as a terrible nightmare, but a good night's dream at the same time. She won't remember me, and I've made sure that those who knew about her disappearance will treat it as if she's never left the village at all."

He lifted his briefcase.

"Do you know why I carry this thing?"

Their silence was his answer.

"Aside from the obvious fact that I'll need something to store my stuffs into, this thing was a gift from my first wife." He stroked his hand on the surface of the briefcase's rough and rugged out leather. "I was doing office work, so my wife thought that it's only normal for someone like me to have something like this…" his face scrunched up. "Though believe it or not, there's no need for one in the first place, but she insisted." He laughed.

"So I began bringing this thing to work, added a few modifications to it too." he chuckled as he recalled the shark scene that he pulled. "I'm… old and tired, I can't carry things easily on my shoulders anymore." Serenity took the form of his smile. "So, I use this to remedy that." He hugged the storage item to his person, placing it right where his chest is. "It's hard to let go of the things that you've been carrying for almost your entire life, but one day, your body just isn't strong enough to carry them anymore."

Mokou saw something in him.

She saw herself.

"But this old man's time hasn't come yet," the smile on his face transformed into a smirk that Keine frequently spotted him making. "he still has a lot to do before he kicks the bucket, hehehe."

Keine have seen many things in her long life. She witnessed death, she witnessed pain and endured it, she saw the pain of others, and she knew of the unfair circumstances that others were having. But the moment she laid her eyes on an enigma known as Uzumaki Naruto, she saw something that was even wordier than one of her student's history essays. She saw a book filled with so many chapters, each chapter detailing the fall and rise of a man who forced himself to smile even in the toughest of situation. There were happiness written in that book, but double the amount of pain, sadness and loneliness. But still, she saw the man enduring through it all with an idiotic albeit innocent smile. Keine was not one to be emotional, but she could not stop herself from crying.

"So, Miss Keine, what do you say we continue that date of our, eh?"

Wiping the tears that were beginning to gather on the corner of her eyes, she giggled. "Not today, idiot. I'm tired and it's your fault that I'm feeling it."

The man sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Hehehe… I'll pay for our date, then."

Mokou grinned, before she joined in the conversation by wrapping her two arms around the two people's neck. "Oi, oi, oi! Don't forget that you also owe me food!"

"…Uh… who are you again? You a part of the circus?"

"It's me, Mokou!"

They walked into the village, the sun rising above the horizon to mark the beginning of a brand new day.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well… this chapter was a bitch to write.**

 **In more ways than one.**

 **All jokes aside, I personally feel that I've rushed this chapter. Originally, this was planned to be a two chapter long story, but my excitement and last minute decision got the best of me. I think that you guys would like a quicker chapter, instead of an overly dragged out arc. But maybe that's just my incapability to divide the story line, so I apologize if you feel like that this chapter was rushed.**

 **Well, hopefully that you guys will appreciate the scenes that I've written. Though they are short, I hope that the impact was big. And to those of you who played the recommended soundtracks throughout the entire chapter, you've just done yourself a great favor of furthering your reading immersion. Cheers.**

 **And I'm really, really interested in what kind of titles that you readers will come up for my story. I'll pick whatever's fitting with the chapters I've written!**


	8. Case Files Part 1

**Wow! We broke through a hundo favorites and follows! You guys are the best!**

 **I'm still waiting for someone to suggest the titles for the chapters I've posted, just in case you didn't know that.**

 **There's nothing much to say aside from just how thankful I am to you guys, so enjoy the story!**

 **Oh and** _ **He Who Seeks The Joys in Life**_ **, I'm watching you. ;)**

* * *

"Are you sure that you won't need any help?"

Marisa ignored the question and lifted the heavy looking cardboard box alone with her two hands. She hugged the heavy box, filled with all sorts of trinkets and ends that she had gotten her hands on in her life. Her walking pace was slightly quicker than him, a few paces in front, and not showing any sign of slowing down.

Not that the man was putting much thought into it, but he could take a guess and say that Marisa was upset about something. He stumbled into her carrying that large and heavy looking box she's carrying in the village and being the nice gentleman he was, he offered to carry her weight for her.

She rejected, persistently.

He'd lay off of her if she weren't being so persistent about it, but since she did, he decided that he'll be bugging her until she's annoyed was the only legitimate way of her letting him know the contents of her box. Again, he'll take a wild guess about it and say that that box was filled with the stuffs she'd borrowed from a random poor and unlucky sod. But never mind said random poor sod, the girl actually needed some real help. She may be a magician, but not all magicians can carry a box that weighs nearly half their body mass apparently.

"Hey come on, Marisa-kun, let me help you with that."

"I told you eight times already, no!" Marisa huffed even louder. "The things here are all personal," she glared. "and I know that you're thinking that I probably stole these from some random guy, well sorry to tell you, but these are all mine!"

"You took the words right outta might head," the taller blonde grinned, raising both hands along with the briefcase he's holding on one of them. "But seriously, the least you could do is tell me where you're going."

The witch sighed. Just like Naruto who was still learning how things were in Gensokyo, she's having the same problem of dealing with how tenacious the man can be sometimes.

"I'm…" she began to feel uneasy. "I'm gonna visit my dad."

Naruto's eyes went several millimeters apart, not expecting her answer one bit. He always thought that the witch was an orphan, no disrespect to her.

"And I'm not really that… close with my old man, see." The witch ended her explanation.

"Is that why you're living alone instead of with him?"

Marisa nodded at Naruto's question, confirming that it's true. "Yeah, and I was old enough to leave home and living by myself; so I see no faults in that." Her lips faded into a thin line, something that she rarely did. "Besides, I'm sure that pops needed the alone time just as well as I do."

He knew just how nosy or intrusive he might sound, but he just kept on talking. "And why are you visiting him?"

Marisa gestured to the box she was carrying with a slight shake, but at the same time, Naruto noticed the slight sagging of her shoulders and change of expression. "I said that thing between me and my dad isn't what you'd really call fit for a family bonding, but I'm worried for him, y'know?"

That got Naruto wondering. He never knew that Marisa's the type to be so shy when talking about her family, sure, circumstances existed but it was far from what he had initially thought.

"And this thing here is a box filled with some of the stuffs he lent me before I move out; things are getting messy at my house so I'm returning them to him."

Naruto chuckled. "I can imagine." He really could.

Marisa narrowed her two eyes accusingly. "Somehow, I can guess that your image of me is not as good as I thought it was."

"Hey, you're the one who declared that you'll rob me blind in broad daylight." He saw the dusting on the witch's cheeks. "And you weren't exactly subtle about your 'borrowing' habits when we're at that mansion several days ago."

Marisa's look of embarrassment turned sheepish quickly. "Yeah…" but it disappeared even quicker. "Anyway, are you just going to follow me or what? Walking with a chick magnet like you is putting all the attention me, buddy." Marisa had noticed it the moment they entered the more crowded parts of the village. Every single women, whether they were single or not was debatable, had been staring at their direction. She could feel the staring being directed at her and the immortal, but more on the guy.

She also heard whispers amongst the female population. She understood them completely. As a healthy adolescent female, she will admit that Naruto is in fact very attractive, not to mention the fact that he was also good at choosing clothes and style.

"Then aren't you glad that you get to have the special privilege of walking with someone who's a chick magnet like me?" he had his nose really high in the air when he said that. Holy shit, just when did he get so smug?

' _If you're going to say the moment I was sealed into you, I'll seriously m-'_

Oh yeah, it's when he sealed Sasuke in himself.

' _Fuck you, dobe.'_

"Oh thank you for giving me company even when I never asked for it in the first place…" If Marisa could use her hands right now, she'll wiggle them sarcastically in the air. "Seriously, do you even have friends?" she asked.

"I do, but most of them are dead."

And it backfired real quickly.

 **Play Horizon In The Middle of Nowhere OST - Kyoukai Senjou he to**

Maris nearly dropped the box she was carrying fall along with it. The witch lowered her head in shame and surprise, but mostly shame. "I'm sorry, ze." The circumference of her hat allowed for her eyes to be shaded by the shadow that it projected. "But what about the rest?"

"I said most, since there's only one of them left living." Naruto shares conventionally, not really finding the topic hard to share. He scratched his chin as he narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't say that there's only him left alive… there's supposed to be another one, but I'm still uncertain."

"Oh…" there's really nothing more Marisa could say. Then, she felt a hand on her shoulder. They did not stop their walking when she felt him whisper to her ears.

"As an apology to me, why don't you let me carry that for you?"

Marisa blinked.

"I won't take no for an answer. Or else, I won't forgive you."

She gave him the box.

If there's one thing that Marisa really knew Uzumaki Naruto have, it's kindness. The man was kind, in his own ways, sure, but kind nonetheless. It didn't take her very long to figure out that he's one of the few rare breeds to have gone through a lot of things in life. So when she saw his broad back as he strode past her carrying the box she was supposed to carry, she couldn't help but thought 'damn, this guy's weird.' But then again, Gensokyo's a place for weird people, so she had no right to think of him like that. However, she knew that the man's weirdness was just another good trait of his.

Still, there's no excusing the fact that he was by far two of the only person she could dub as a complete mystery to her; the first one being a certain gap yokai. The guy just appeared into the midst of their life, literally, with no problem of exposing several of his unique skill sets. But what made him special from several interesting people she'd meet in her life, was the fact that he was the only one who had done – by far – the most absurd thing that she had ever seen anyone done.

What's next, will he drop the Yokai Mountain into the sea that he had created before splitting the sky into three different parts?

The witch mentally punished herself. If there's another thing she's learnt about the man was that to not think of the ridiculous but plausibly possible things that only he, himself, could do. It's like a law that the outsiders' have, what do they call it, Murph's Law or something? She couldn't recall. In any case, there's really no helping on being a little bit cautious whenever she's around the man. Hell even Reimu's a little edgy whenever he's around, and that's actually saying something. Not only Reimu, she knew that her friend Alice too, but the doll maker was much more obvious than their red-white wearing shrine maiden.

It's got to be that personality of his. It had got to be it. Because, aside from whatever ridiculous amount of hax powers he got, it's the only thing that they could not ignore.

The way he seemed so detached and impartial about the things he experienced and see reminded her a little bit of Reimu, but there were differences. Reimu's attitude towards those she met was constant, meaning that she treated everyone – regardless of their status and titles – in the same manner. She showed no apparent disrespect to those she'd meet, but at the same time, she didn't treat them with the esteem they deserve. In the man's case, however, it's far more concerning. He knew respect, that's for sure – oh and Reimu too, just in case if she might've sound a little bit too biased – and he most certainly had a great sense of care and kindness.

But those eyes of his… she had been observing them very, very closely… they lack that certain vigor in them, they're like stars that had lost their will to shine but must keep on producing their light in order to assure people that they were still very much alive, on in his case, capable of living.

He's not detached, no, she was wrong about that.

He's desensitized.

When you dip paper in a cup of water, it'll get soaked. But if you drop the same paper that had been dipped into said cup and into a flowing river afterwards, it'll vanish.

And that was what she saw in those eyes of his. Their light were not dead, they've lost the ability to produce them.

Due to her being so lost in her own thoughts, their walk had been basked underneath the heavy embrace of silence. Fortunately for Marisa, she was already in a familiar part of the village.

"Hey, here will do."

Naruto stopped, turning his body in a sixty degree turn so that he could look at the witch. His lips transformed into a small frown, "You sure?"

Marisa rolled her eyes. She marched towards the man, grabbing the box off from his hands without saying anything before walking several more steps in front of him with her back facing towards him. "I'm sure!"

Naruto shrugged, but even he could not deny the disappointment of not being able to tag along with the witch. He was looking forward to it too. Wordlessly, he turned his back towards her too, briefcase hung on his back with a hold of hand. He tilted his head, turning it and raising it to a hundred and fifty degree angle. "Alright then."

Marisa felt relieved, for some reason she didn't know herself. When he said that he won't follow her, she felt glad and relieved.

"Just tell Marcus I said hi."

Marisa spun around as quickly as she could; troubled with the weight she was carrying. She looked there, here and there again.

No signs of Naruto.

* * *

As usual, her days of being a much younger and more beautiful woman were over. But, let it be known that her old and frail self was still very much capable of kicking the butts of several no-gooders. Formerly a woman popular for being beautiful and unmatched in human beauty, she was now a wrinkly bag of history dust found in the midst of books that were older than her. It was not her decision to be a librarian, never was. But things were different back then, jobs didn't come as easily as it did now. She had to do what she had to do in order for her siblings and old mother to survive.

But life was not all dusty and grey. As she grew older, she grew wiser, met a man and finally settled down in a normal household. Now, she was expecting grandchildren from her daughter. Life was happy for her.

"Excuse me, but may I speak with the head librarian?"

"Oh my." The elderly woman blinked through her spectacles. "Why would you ever want to, sir?"

She watched as the charming young man before her smiled sheepishly and rubbing the side of his head with an awkward grin present. "It's something I can't really explain unless I'm meeting the head librarian myself."

The old lady nodded in understanding, sometimes, things needed to be delivered to the person directly after all. "You may consult your problems with me, then. I am the only librarian in charge of the only library in the village, after all."

"Ah, that makes it easier then." The man took a sweet moment to sift through the contents of his briefcase, pulling out a rectangular orange object which the librarian easily identified as a book before presenting it to her. "I would like to have this book on display in the library."

She had to admit, it was not expected. "Oh, and why is that?"

"I'm an author," the charming blonde admitted. "and not being able to get people to read my works after a long time finally got me all bothered up. I've originally planned to surrender and visit the local bookstores in the first place, but it seemed that people preferred the library instead of those small firms." He explained politely, trying to gain her approval. "So, I decided to let my books be placed here for adults to read, adults, because this is age restricted."

The librarian seemed to have no problem about his literature being age restricted, but the confusion on her face was still obvious. "Yes, I certainly see that, but what would you gain from this?" they can't pay him, because the books that were available here came from donations only.

Most of the books kept in the archives came from the outside world, hence why there's a whole category of them, but the library was given the permission to have them, and in fact this is the only place where people will find books that came from the outside world legally. There were exceptions, as the village council deemed that it was unfair to the people in the village if the library's the only place where outside world's books were allowed to be kept.

Then a thought occurred.

"Are you an outsider, sir?"

"Yes I am." He confirmed her suspicion. "And I'm here for an extended period of time, so there's really no telling when I'll return. That got me into thinking that letting some of my books be available for reading here might be something that the locals here could appreciate."

"And we do." The librarian smiled. "It has been a while ever since new books are archived in here, outsider related books to be more specific." She corrected herself. "But it would be more helpful if it was a book that's directed to the general audience."

"Ah, that reminds me." he began to shuffle through the contents of his briefcase once again, puzzling the woman. She had to wonder, just how spacious is that thing anyway? "Here, I meant to introduce this one first, but… reasons are reasons." The book he showed her now was duller when compared to the first one. The color was far more subtle-looking, olive green and grey will easily make it blend in well with the rest of the books stored here. "This one's age friendly, so the kids could look into it without worrying anything."

He doubted that they'll even understand Icha Icha anyway.

"I see." The librarian acknowledged gratefully. "I appreciate that you're willing to share with us your personal works, sir. We all do."

The young man shook his head. "No, it's me who should be saying thanks really. As an author, not being able to see my works getting read is something that stresses me out."

"I can only imagine."

Afterwards, the young man bid his goodbyes. She was surprised to have met such a docile and polite outsider. Most outsiders she had encountered before tend to be more nervous and uneasy to approach, but he was kind and accepting; if he were dressed less sharply, she could easily mistook him as being a local. Still, this was the first time in her life that an outsider would introduce the library to not one, but two of his works; heck she was not expecting that he was an author in the first place. The young man had an aura of being polite and dignified at the same time, but her age had bestowed her with the gift of being able to see just how mature the man really was. Something tells her that the way he acted may have not been that of his real self, but merely an act that he put when speaking to new people.

And it was well done, he managed to make it look natural. Most people who tend to fake their kindness have the tendency of over exaggerating their tone when speaking, but when the man spoke to her, it was like everyday speech.

Just who was that young man, anyway? Regardless of who he was, she was still grateful of how kind and charitable he was.

"Hm… now isn't this one interesting book?"

Okay, maybe that young man wasn't as innocent as she thought he might be.

* * *

"Welcome!"

"Yo bro, you're here!"

Naruto narrowed both of his blue eyes at the white haired woman who was already drinking her twelfth cup of sake. He shook his head, sighing in unison. But then he shrugged. Honestly, he was more annoyed at the woman for her inability to pick a better time when inviting someone out to a drink. Other than that, he got no problems. Immortals tend to drink much, he knew that by experience.

The blond trudged over to his fellow suspenders wearing immortal, who was still waving her hand to get his attention. He sat down on the chair opposite to her once he reached the table.

"You know Mokou?"

The white haired immortal raised one eyebrow in replacement of replying since she was busy using her mouth to chug another cup into her system.

"This place sucks." He whisperingly said to the woman, not wanting the bartender to hear. "I saw five other similar bars on the way here which looked exactly like this, smell like this and I got the feeling that they're owned by the exactly same person." He was casting suspicious glance at the stoic bartender, who appeared to be out of tune with their conversation.

"That's cuz they are the from same branch." Mokou said after finally finishing her cup. "Taka-boy here has been taking care of this bar ever since he was thirteen, back then, the sake he served was shit; but now…" she nipped the edge of the cup she was holding. "Meh, I've tasted better."

The old stoic faced bartender did not react to the comment or whatsoever, in fact, he looked glad.

"Taka-boy's siblings take care of the other bars in this area, Take, Toki, Toka, Toko and Kato. They're roughly at the same age when they started to do bartending." Mokou explained, readying herself another cup.

Naruto couldn't help but express interest. "What's wrong with the last one?"

"Kato-chan's a girl."

"Oh."

"Hey Taka-boy! More booze for my bro here!" Mokou called out, yelling her voice to the stoic man who was already preparing another jar of sake.

"Anyway, I trust that this was not just a way for me to make up for what I did to you and Keine several days ago?" He finally cut to the chase, seeing that he might actually waste time in here.

"That's half of it." Mokou nodded. "You still haven't took Keine out on her date yet, until you got that one covered, I won't have you dragged all the way from your goddamned hole you call a house to this place and pay for all the drinks I drunk." She quickly downed another freshly brought cup that the bartender had just given.

"Yeah… I'll make sure to remember that." He snorted while simultaneously pulling out a cigar. "So, what's the other half?" he lit his cigar with a **working** lighter.

"The other half… well, I ain't gonna lie." Mokou said far too grimly for Naruto to like. She pushed her cup away from her to make space for her elbow, so that she could let it rest. "I'll probably owe you a lot after I said what it is." She saw his stare that motioned her to explain. "There's a forest in Gensokyo called The Bamboo Forest of The Lost. As the name clearly suggests, people get lost there. No matter how much breadcrumbs you left for your return journey, you won't be able to get anywhere near Eientei. Eientei is a clinic run over by…" her face became irritable, if not aggressive. "a certain **skank** , and I put that lightly, that I know. Though I'd rather not get myself involved with whatever that whore is doing in her free time, it's my job to guide people to get there."

Throughout hearing the white haired immortal's explanation, Naruto could not help but show his amusement by staring attentively at Mokou. He heard of this clinic, but nothing too particular about it.

"But that ain't really the problem. The problem is that people have been missing from the village." Naruto slowly raised an eyebrow as he was drinking from a cup. "Keine's actually dealing with this problem already, but so far with the few help we get, we couldn't find out the whereabouts of the missing people. So, I want you to do me a favor and help me find those people."

Her conclusion was well delivered, sounding absolutely concerned about the lives that went missing. She had a sense of duty… it's the least of what Naruto could get upon hearing her reason. He slowly placed his sake cup on the table, momentarily giving Mokou a wavy stare.

"…I get it, a case of missing people's bad." He chuckled. "And that explains why our teacher's been high strung as of late." That short laughter was shared with Mokou. "But what makes you think that I'm even able to find those people?"

Mokou's serious mask fell, as she gawked at him with disbelief in her eyes. "Are you shitting me? Are you really going to play that way?" Seeing him shaking his head made Mokou raised her hands in exasperation. "Dude, bro; there're people missing, see the elephant in the room here. I'll owe you huge time, that's fair, right?"

Naruto shook his head, regardless. "I didn't say that I wouldn't help, Mokou. I was asking what makes you think that I'm even able to find those missing people?" he tapped the tip of the cup he drank from earlier. "See here, the problem isn't the elephant that's in the room. It's the skeleton you're hiding in your closet. Spit it out, else I'll leave."

Mokou stared owlishly at the blonde immortal, before eventually giving in. "People like us are too stubborn for our own good…" she saw him nod in agreement. "Fine. The truth is, I didn't lie when I said that I need help in finding those people. But there's a reason why I asked you specifically. Aside from the things that Keine told me about you; the things that you did etcetera, she mentioned that you're really good in fighting, better than most of the skilled fighters in Gensokyo." She shrugged. "Outside of danmaku. I have a raising suspicion that foul play is at play. People don't just go missing, at least not anymore, but ever since last week, they've been missing anyway."

"You're just making things more complicated, Mokou. Why foul play? Why not yokais daring to kidnap villagers from their homes? Are they last seen entering the bamboo forest?"

"I said I _think_ that it's foul play. Yokais know better than to sneak into the village with Keine around, and that's if they could even sneak inside in the first place. Most investigations that I've done from the past few days always lead to the damned forest. I did all searching all by myself, cus it's hard to keep an eye for people you brought along with you while looking for clues at the same time."

"You asked the people in clinic?"

"I barged my way in." Mokou said with a deadbeat tone. "Questioned their receptionist too, if that's not enough."

Naruto did not show any signs of putting any thoughts into Mokou's plea.

"Look, if it makes you feel more obliged to help, the chief's putting out a reward for whoever has information on these people's disappearance."

Naruto shook his head, again. "That's not the concern. The real problem here is the disappearance. Do people disappear that often, if so, how often?"

Mokou scratched her chin. "Not anymore. Back then, we have kidnappings on the daily. Sometimes it's from yokais foolish enough to sneak into the village and try to escape. I said foolish because Keine had no problem beating their asses to a pulp afterwards. But know that things weren't as secured as now back then, people were still unaccepting of the yokais outside."

"Okay…" mentally, he put that into his thoughts for later thinking. "What about previous investigations, are you the only active person doing it?"

"No." Mokou shook her head in negative. She didn't touch her cup once she got immersed into the conversation. "I'm the only active investigator who's searching outside of the village. I haven't really told anyone about the idea of there being a foul play."

"Why not?"

"Cuz' that'll make me suspicious as hell, duh." Mokou rolled her eyes.

"Hm…" Naruto ignored the sarcastic remark from the white haired woman. "So we have multiple cases of people being spirited away from a place like Gensokyo…" he muttered with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Oh the irony." Back to being serious. "What makes it even serious is the fact that you suspected of it being a foul play, done by someone who isn't a yokai or at least by someone who's inside the village?"

Mokou nodded.

"And the final thing, surprisingly, there hasn't been any reports from the other investigators, at all?"

"Not at all." Mokou said. "I told you, we're stuck. The only trail we have leads into the bamboo forest."

"What kind of trail?"

"Clothing." Mokou muttered. "When presented to people, some close acquaintances of those who went missing confirmed that several clothing that we found belonged to the missing people. This just increases my suspicion of it being foul play." Her looks transformed into something even unrestrained. "If it's rape, then that's where they'd take the victims into. No interventions, quiet and dark."

Naruto returned his cigar back to his mouth, as he began inhaling smoke he then released them to the air out from his mouth. He's not really sure of what to make of the situation given to him. On one side, it's not his business, not at all. He expected that Gensokyo had at least experienced a few cases of mysterious disappearance, considering the ecosystem of human minority and yokai majority. Still… rape? Mokou's got a weird sense of conclusion.

"But didn't you mention that it's almost impossible for someone other than you to get into that forest without getting lost?"

"Yeah, but believe it or not, there are people in the village capable of returning back even after getting lost in the forest for several hours." Mokou told him. "So, will you help?"

Naruto had no choice.

"It's not really my problem, Mokou." Her shoulders noticeably slumped upon hearing his words. "But that doesn't mean that it couldn't be mine." Mokou lifted her head with hope. "I'll help, but don't expect too much. Remember, if we're really dealing with foul play, then those missing people could already be dead before the day you even met me."

"I know that." Mokou whispered. "But still… if they're dead, the least I could find was their bodies. But I couldn't find anything. No more clothing, not even a strand of hair."

"I'll be surprised if you even able to find a strand of hair in a forest…" Mokou sent a disapproving glance at his timing of humor. "Ahem. I'll help, but I'll do the investigation my own way."

"Sure." Mokou agreed without thinking. Why did he have to make it sound like a big deal? "I was planning to let you do that in the first place anyway."

Instead of complying with her statement, the blonde shook his head. "Oh no, you will regret saying that. My ways require a more… _personal_ approach." He said whisperingly. "I will question every available witness, investigate all the last known sightings and sniff out any clues that might just be there. Sounds helpful, right?" he didn't give her time to nod. "It is, but my methods won't be to your liking. So… are you sure that you want my help on this?"

Mokou did not know why, but suddenly, she felt a pang of doubt hitting her.

But extensive research needed extensive measures.

"I'm sure."

She failed to notice the smirk.

* * *

"Good."

' _How long has it been ever since you've done detective work?'_

"More than a century…" Naruto mumbled in a hushed manner of talking to avoid unnecessary attention. "It's back in Britain, the Whitechapel murders mystery, remember?"

' _Ah… the Ripper?'_

"Yup." Naruto confirmed. As he walked, he started to feel the heat of the sun getting to him, explaining the sweat that ran down his back. "Never got to figure out who the maniac is after all this time."

' _He's good. Better than anyone we've known.'_

"True that…"

His conversation of old time's experience with his inner friend was cut short when he finally arrived at his destination. The man had gone through a change of wardrobe. Ditching his normally stylish formal look, he stuck with formal only. Wearing a buttoned grey collared shirt, he also had a brown leather trench coat with multiple storage pockets on it; the straps that could be used to shut the coat tight were undone, revealing the clothing underneath it. He donned a pair of brown leather working gloves, covering his hands from the heat; not that it did his job, he was still feeling a little hot. As lower wear, he had a pair of black slacks on, accompanied by a pair of brown oxfords. And to finish his look, he had a worn, ragged brown fedora on his head. Of course, his trusty briefcase was on his side.

His destination, which was in front of him, was the home of one of the missing people's acquaintance; he said acquaintance because he could not assume any closer connections until proven so.

' _Who's the guy again?'_

"Hakata Genji. Has a relation to one of the missing victims, Himawari Reiko. Paper said that they're nothing more than acquaintances, but I doubt that's the case." He tipped his hat for added emphasis. After readying his mental, he knocked on the door of the normal sized house. He laid down three knocks on the door, and he sensed movements from inside. After a minute of waiting, the door to the small traditional house slid open, revealing a young man.

"Hakata Genji-san?" Naruto spoke first.

"I am…" the man looked wary, if not nervous. "May I know who's asking?"

Naruto tipped his fedora forward. "Uzumaki Naruto, I'm here as an investigator on the case about the recent missing people." Naruto saw the nervous look on the young man's face transforming into that of a troubled one, slowly, it morphed into that of bitterness and anguish. "I would like to ask you a few questions for my investigation, if you don't mind."

"No… no I don't." he said that, but there's no hiding the reluctance in his tone of voice. "Please, come in."

The hat wearing man uttered a word for imposing into the other man's property. With subtle glances, he checked around the house. Structure wise, it's like any other oriental built house that most people lived in, with traditional aesthetics and design. However, the interior was peculiar. For someone who lived alone, it's curious that Genji owned two dining chairs instead of one. There were no any decorations worth mentioning, aside from several paintings and calligraphy posted on the wall. However, upon entering the living room, there was something that caught the blonde's eyes.

Ikebana or flower decorating is a practice commonly done by women, not saying that men weren't allowed to exhibit any similar hobbies, it's just strange for a man who was in his late twenties to have a perfectly pruned, decorated and trimmed perfectly arranged into something that was worthy of praise and the term art. Common ikebana style involved arranging certain parts of the flower into a structure that made it look like a piece of art. He remembered his latest wife being dedicated to the practice, something he found charming of her.

"Please sit down and wait while I prepare tea." Being the host, Genji excused himself so that he could prepare refreshments to go along with the conversation that they were about to have.

'Huh… that guy must've had a lot of visits if he's used to this…'

Naruto found a point in his friend's statement. Genji, according to Mokou, was one of the most visited people associated with the missing people's case. He was not a suspect, not at all. The reason why he's the most questioned contact was because of his persistent in having the investigation concluded. He'd hire several people to find clues and asked the village chief to put more effort in finding those people. To put it bluntly, he's putting twice the effort that others were putting in finding these people. It's a part of his reason why he decided to meet the man for himself.

Shortly after departing, Genji returned with two mugs.

' _Notice the mugs; the colors to be more specific.'_

One was grey and the other one yellow.

This told Naruto several things.

And the moment when Genji offered him the yellow mug instead of the grey one confirmed those things.

"This mug…" Naruto suddenly spoke, holding the tea-filled mug in one gloved hand. "It belongs to Reiko-san, right?"

A look of mild surprise crossed Genji's face. "How…"

The blonde man simply gestured to the arranged flower sitting on the small end table several distance away from them. "The flower over there's a chrysanthemum, easily identified from the shape and bright colors as well as the alternately arranged leaves divided into smooth edges. Though there are several species with tamer and or softer colors, yellow is the most mentioned color when people thought of chrysanthemum. Know why? It's because people tend to mistake them with sunflowers, or flowers of the helianthus species. But the moment they looked at both flowers, they start to notice that both are way different."

He made sniffing sounds, guising it by smelling his tea.

"She loves chrysanthemums, huh?"

Genji did not hide the shocked expression from the man in front of him. After a few moments of silence, he nodded slowly, sighing. "It's true… Reiko had always loved flowers, especially those." He gestured to the nearby flowers. "Before she went missing, she said that she was going to go to the florist to purchase another flower. But she didn't return, I went to the florist but they said Reiko didn't visit them that day. I figured that she's out shopping, but it was already night before I knew it. I got worried, so I searched and asked around; no one saw her."

His breathing hitched.

"The next day, I filed in a case to the village's office. They sent out a search party immediately. I got fearful when they found her favorite obi scattered just outside of the forest's entrance. I insisted for the team to search into the forest, but they said that they couldn't risk on getting lost inside the forest. Then Mokou-san came to help, she saw us arguing right on the forest's entrance and asked what was wrong. I explained the situation and she told me that she'll help. But in the end, her searching did not help one bit." His shoulders dropped, feeling even more dejected with every word. "Then, more and more people start disappearing then it became a huge thing. There's still no improvement on the search, families are crying and there's nothing that could be done about it."

Being the one on the listening end, Naruto was paying attention to everything Genji was saying. "What about the other missing people, what can you tell me about them?"

Genji shook his head, a mix of disappointment and pain crossing his face. "Not much, aside from their names and a little bit of known facts."

"Tell me."

Complying, Genji began talking. "Reiko's been the first reported case, next was the second daughter of the Tanizaki's, poor girl, she's barely an adult. The third was Nakata-san, she worked as a tailor down in the business district. Her husband and children were devastated. Next is Matsu-san, he's in charge of the bookstore down the street. His wife fainted when they found her husband's glasses in front of the bamboo forest. And last is a little boy who went to school, Keine-sensei's been frantic from what I've heard."

"Keine-sensei?"

"Ah, yes. Just like Reiko, Keine-sensei was my teacher when I was still in school. So it's kind'a stuck… you know…"

Naruto chuckled lightly. "Believe me, I know. But anyway, are all these missing people related? Do you know who would kidnap any of them?" a stupid question, since he'd directly asked them right off the bat instead of trying to give Genji subtle hints.

At the word 'kidnap', Genji casted Naruto a stare of dread. "Kidnap…? You think that they were kidnapped?"

Naruto nodded hesitantly. "It's the only possible conclusion that we could come up with, or else why would people disappear on their own?"

Genji was too immersed in his grief and anger to appreciate Naruto's tasteless jokes. He clenched his fists tight, stopping blood from flowing. "Reiko's… kidnapped?" he mumbled, refusing to accept the facts. "No… but she's a good person, no one would do such things… unless yokais…?"

Again, the blonde nodded. "We came to that conclusion too. But, seeing as how tight security is when it comes to yokais entering the village, we can't place the blame on them."

That caused Genji to stop what he was doing and think. "Yes… that's true. But to think that another person would do such thing as low as kidnapping…"

Naruto blinked, not saying anything. He gave time for Genji to come to terms with himself, letting the man think and breathe so that he could face the conclusion.

"So…" Naruto began speaking again, getting the other man's attention. "I'm asking you, do you know anyone that might harbor hate towards Reiko? Or an old enemy or something?"

Genji shook his head without any hesitation. "Reiko is the nicest girl that I have ever known in my entire life. People adore her-"

There we go.

"-and like her, the kids in the neighborhood sees her as their big sister!" The man exclaimed, as if to deny Naruto's claim even more. "Why would anyone hate her?"

Naruto tipped his hat, shielding his eyes from Genji. "Then let me change my question." He leaned forward slight from where he was sitting and whispered out, "Do you know anyone that hates _you_?"

Genji looked even more confused and dreaded. "Hate… me? What do you mean, what do you mean?" he raised his voice in a desperate attempt to get Naruto to speak.

The part-time detective leaned backwards, drawing the space which he had erased before. "You said it yourself, Genji-san. Reiko is a nice person, too nice in fact, from the way you've described her to me. She is well liked by people, kids, adults… other girls and…" it was then when Genji finally understood what Naruto was trying to tell him. Naruto saw the realization taking place on Genji's face. "Yes… _men_. It might sound awkward, Genji-san, but was Reiko in a relationship before you had yours with her?"

Genji could not answer directly. He paused. He thought and he froze. His lips trembled at the thought that had just come up in his head. Just like pulling out the most bottom canned drink from a pyramid of canned drinks, Genji's emotion fell, it flowed out. His breathing hitched, and eventually, it became a full on sobbing and crying.

"No… no… Reiko… Reiko…" dismayed and despaired over the thoughts he had, Genji could only cry to his palms.

Naruto watched silently as the man cried. His heart did not react or anything when he watched another man cry in front of him. Men don't cry? Hah, men were just better at hiding their tears than girls do, which was why their field of vision was narrower than that of a woman's. He kept his mouth shut and gave a moment of silence for Genji. His choked sobs were echoing throughout the house, the grief and feeling of sadness fueled the volume of his sobs.

"No… Reiko…"

His choked lessened, but still sobbing nonetheless.

"…There was a guy who Reiko was close to before I met her." He steadied his voice just enough for Naruto to hear it. "F – From what I asked from my friends, that person was like a little brother to Reiko. Reiko was an orphan, so she was always alone and it seemed that that person was the closest thing she had as a family. But… he passed away long before I even knew about him."

Another dead lead… but was it?

"I – I don't think that Reiko's kidnapped or threatened for that matter… she's a good person, and she's smart." Genji murmured softly, short on tears. "Reiko would never let something like that happen to herself."

But it happened anyway. The possibility of the crime being a kidnapping done by a human from within the village the most possible scenario he could come up with, but there's still no evidences to solidify his thoughts. He will need something more… but first, he must get Genji to believe him.

"Genji-san," Naruto breathed out. His eyes softened as he gazed at the man with sincere sorry. "I'm sorry that this happened to you, to Reiko and the rest of the victims' families involved with this case. No one should experience this kind if loss. I can help, but if this investigation yields no result at all, the possibility of finding more clues will be flushed down the drain." He spoke softly, "I need your help in this, Genji-san."

The younger man slowly raised his head, feeling Naruto's words getting through him. Genji's hands trembled, but he clenched them shut. His drying lips were licked, showing his willingness to talk.

"T – There was… _someone_."

Naruto paid attention, both ears opened.

* * *

' _So what did you gathered from him, detective?'_

Snorting, he cursed at his formless friend under his breath. "Enough to confirm my suspicions." He muttered lowly and dryly as he walked the streets of the village. "It's surprising… really, really surprising."

After he finally got Genji to start telling him everything, he found out several more things. Interesting things.

Prior to Himawari Reiko's disappearance, Genji had a guest that visited him over at his house. He was not a local, but whether or not he was an outsider was still unconfirmed. Genji's description of the stranger was concise. He wore a black hat, thick dark cloak and had a friendly smile on his face. The last bit was what made this stranger all the more suspicious. If Genji mentioned his smile instead of any other particular detail, then it was obvious that the stranger wanted Genji to notice him for being an all smiling person. After living for a few days in Gensokyo, he noticed that no locals here would dress in the manner the stranger which Genji had described to him.

As far as he knew, it's only him who dressed like that.

That explained why Genji's wary of him when he visited. That knife that he hid behind him throughout the entire conversation they had was a smart move.

Going out from what he'd learn from Genji's testimonies, he noticed something eerie with the reported date for each disappearance. He's not familiar with Gensokyo's calendar, but they were all reported right at the start of each week, meaning that the culprit could have kidnapped his or her victim just a day before. Assuming that the kidnappings were done at a time where most villagers had already gone to sleep, at night, then that lowers the chance of getting a direct witness who might happen to witness the kidnapper on the act.

This was a large circle he's circling around… he needed to make his way into the middle, now.

"But this stranger… just who is he…?"

' _A stranger, duh.'_

"Gee, thank you captain obvious, I really appreciate information."

' _You're most welcome, lieutenant sarcasm, I do my best.'_

All jokes aside, this case might turn out to be something deeper than just a case of missing people. Right now, he had several of his clones investigating the bamboo forest and several more questioning the other families or relatives of the missing people. None of them dispelled yet, so maybe they're not yet done investigating.

So far, all that he knew is that the kidnappings were done before the start of each week, the kidnapper's doing the deed indiscriminately, whatever trail or clues leads outside of the bamboo forest and that he needed to watch out for a guy wearing a hat and a cloak. This was going nowhere. Honestly. He just hoped that this won't turn into something as big as an incident.

Walking, he found a nice place to rest for the day. It was a small tea shop, he'll remember to take Keine to the date she promised him soon. Entering, he was not greeted by anyone in charge. Not that he's complaining or anything… he took a seat on one of the many chairs available, and he chose the closest one to the exit.

"Are you ready to o-" a gasp.

Then a snarl.

"You… you… you kidnapper!"

Naruto's hands swiped the makeshift weapon from his attacker's hand, which happened to be a ballpoint pen. Everyone reacted to the sound of someone being slammed to the table top. He subdued her arms, rendering it useless by folding it forcefully behind her back; pinning her face on the table top while he did that.

This got him attention from everyone else in the tea shop.

"You kidnapper! How dare you show your face here?! I'll kill you for what you did to my brother!" even as she had her face pressed and pinned down to the wooden surface of the table, she was still able to snarl like a lion.

Naruto put more pressure on his hold in reply to the woman's attempt of resisting. Naruto growled, feeling frustrated and confused. "Lady, you got the wrong person."

"BULLSHIT!"

He clicked his tongue. Now they're gathering even more unnecessary attention. He flared a little bit of his chakra and they both disappeared from the tea shop.

He dropped her the moment they reappeared within a dark alleyway he secured yesterday, he knew that this kind of place would be handy.

"Grrr…! Don't think that you could subject me to whatever sick and twisted fantasy you have, filth!" she hurried back to her feet, ready to fight back with a ferocious look on her face.

Naruto raised both of his hands. "Lady, you got it all wrong, I'm not who you think I am." He reassured her in a calm voice. He took off his hat, showing her his face. "See? I'm not who you think I am."

At the revelation of his features, the lady became more wary. But upon getting a clearer look at his face, her guard lessened, though there's still no mistaking the doubt from her face. "H – How can I be so sure that you're not lying?" there's no erasing the doubt from her tone, either.

The blonde sighed, running a hand through his hair, getting it sticky due to the hair gel he used this morning. "Let me explain…"

 **Boys are explaining…**

He finished explaining things to her. And thankfully, she was patient enough to listen first to his explanation of the whole thing. He leaned his back even further to the wall of the building behind him, he was thinking of pulling out cig for him to smoke, but decided not to; due to the nature of their conversation here. After hearing his explanation, the lady, named Hirano Ayumu, had completely relaxed around him.

There's no telling what mixture of emotion she was feeling. It's a mixture of pain, grief from loss, relief of knowing that someone was still on the missing people's case and frustration due to her mistaking someone else for a suspect. She could only choke back sobs, sniffing as her tears threatened to drip down her eyes.

Wordlessly, Naruto took out a handkerchief and he offered it to her.

"Thank you…" she choked out, grabbing the cloth with gratitude. She used it to wipe her tears clear, sniffing momentarily before eventually stopping. She stepped forward, directly into Naruto's line of sight or in simpler terms; she was now standing right in front of him. With eyes red from crying, she stared intently at him.

"Please…" it was an honest pleading. "Please find my little brother. The black hat man has got to be the one who kidnapped him!"

"We can't come to that conclusion just yet, not unless we get enough evidence." Naruto said, much to her displeasure and discontent. "However, you're in luck. Do you know Genji-san? Hakata Genji-san?"

"No… I don't know him…"

"Someone he knew was one of the people missing. If your assumption of this… hat wearing stranger being the one behind the kidnappings, then you'll find my next statement pleasing." He cleared his throat, preparing to talk again. "The stranger visited him just a day before Reiko, Genji-san's acquaintance, went missing."

Ayumu went wide eyed.

"I knew it…" Ayumu whispered aggressively. Her eyes narrowed back to their hostile state like when she mistook Naruto for the stranger. "I knew it…!"

"Ayumu-san, calm yourself, we can't be too sure just yet." Naruto spoke in attempts to calm the woman down. "I know that you're irritated, but to me, this is too good to be true." He continued his speaking, cutting her attempts of trying to cut him up. "If we're going to go with the way things have been going, then this stranger had visited his victim's house – or the house of the victims' acquaintances of relatives – before kidnapping them. This is too good to be true, no matter how you look at it."

' _Unprofessional too…'_

Naruto agreed with his best friend inwardly. "I won't promise you that I'll find your brother alive, but I promise that I will get to the bottom of this." The first part of his statement was not what the woman wanted to hear, but he's not just going to make empty promises. Not again. "You're not the only one carrying this grief."

Ayumu gave a nod, having been brought to the harsh possibility of her brother being dead. "Please… just find the bastard who did this…!"

Naruto tipped his hat, twisting his body away from her so that he could face the exit of the alleyway.

"I won't just find him… I'll bring him in."

* * *

"Yukari-sama, are you sure that this is wise?"

Ran knew better than to question her master's intentions. But now… she couldn't help but do so.

Over the past few days, her master had been fixated on a man. If it was a normal fixation of lust, love or any similar emotions; then she could've easily ignored it. But this… this was beyond those. Way beyond those.

"Ran… this is not just wise, this is smart. Exhilarating. Satisfying." Yakumo Yukari all but said out to her shikigami who was observing from the distance. "Reviving an old, deceased, fearsome serial killer and letting him loose in Gensokyo as a test for our interesting subject is more than wise, dear Ran."

Yukari knew of the consequences, but she could have easily remedy things should they go out of hand. Underneath her purple parasol, the mysterious yokai smiled a cynically sweet smile.

"But the shrine maiden and her friends will not take this matter lightly, especially if they are to know of the deaths."

Yukari's smile transformed into a frown. She disliked it when her servant disagreed with her idea.

"Yes… Reimu would be upset, furious even to know that there are lives lost for my entertainment." She was enjoying this, she had no need to hide that fact. "But this is necessary. For me."

"For us."

And by _us_ , she meant the man and her.

Ran was speechless, but not due to shock. She could not say anything against her master, hell she wouldn't even think of doing it. So, she obediently nod, before excusing herself.

* * *

 _He_ stood amongst the many house roof of the Human Village in Gensokyo.

 _His_ cloak billowed, exposed to the winds that rushed past him. _He_ had _his_ eyes fixed on the scenery before him; quiet, dimly lit streets with few people active.

This was _his_ hunting ground.

 _He_ might not know how _he_ was able to live again, but there's one thing _he_ knew…

It's time for the _Ripper_ to strike once again.

* * *

 **A/N: Dum Dum Duuuuum!**

 **Surprised aren't ya'? This chapter marks the official start of the third arc, and this arc will stretch for at least one or two more chapters, depending on how willing I am with my writing.**

 **Things will get a little bit more** _ **elementary**_ **from here onwards…**


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